engage

verb

Etymology: From Middle English engagen, from Old French engagier (“to pledge, engage”), from Frankish *anwadjōn (“to pledge”), from Proto-Germanic *an-, *andi- + Proto-Germanic *wadjōną (“to pledge, secure”), from Proto-Germanic *wadją (“pledge, guarantee”), from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- (“to pledge, redeem a pledge; guarantee, bail”), equivalent to en- + gage. Cognate with Old English anwedd (“pledge, security”), Old English weddian (“to engage, covenant, undertake”), German wetten (“to bet, wager”), Icelandic veðja (“to wager”). More at wed.

1. To interact socially.

   “Thus ſhall mankind his guardian care engage, / The promis'd father of the future age.”

2. To interact socially.

   “the difficult task of engaging him in conversation”

   “Shapps refused to engage with the unions and claimed that the industrial disputes were nothing to do with him, despite controlling the purse strings.”

3. To interact socially.

   “This humanity and good nature engages every body to him, so that when he is pleasant upon any of them all his family are in a good humour, and none so much as the person whom he diverts himself with: […]”

4. To interact antagonistically.

   “1698-1699, Edmund Ludlow, Memoirs a favourable opportunity of engaging the enemy”

   “Having failed to become the first warship to shoot down another planet, the fleet would then engage the Italian cruiser screen the next afternoon, with Sydney not scoring any hits on its opposite numbers but managing to damage an Italian destroyer.”

5. To interact antagonistically.
6. To interact contractually.

   “For this scene, a large number of supers are engaged, and in order to further swell the crowd, practically all the available stage hands have to ‘walk on’ dressed in various coloured dominoes, and all wearing masks.”

   “Rich Jews used to engage Christian music-teachers to teach their daughters German vocal and instrumental music.”

7. To interact contractually.
8. To interact contractually.

   “They were engaged last month! They're planning to have the wedding next year.”

   “[…] Love is a ſort of Devotion too, and not only ſhould beget Reſpect, but likevviſe ingage Patience.”

9. To interact contractually.

   “Thou that doest liue in later times, must wage / Thy workes for wealth, and life for gold engage.”

10. To interact mechanically.

    “Whenever I engage the clutch, the car stalls out.”

    “The Liner train wagon is a simple underframe on bogies, with coned location points that engage recesses in the container bases.”

11. To interact mechanically.

    “The teeth of one cogwheel engage those of another.”

12. To interact mechanically.

    “He engaged the lock on the door.”

    “The lock engaged automatically when the door was shut.”

13. To entangle.