engross

verb

Etymology: From Middle English engrossen, from Anglo-Norman engrosser (“to gather in large quantities, draft something in final form”); partly from the phrase en gros (“in bulk, in quantity, at wholesale”), from en- + gros; and partly from Medieval Latin ingrossō (“thicken, write something large and in bold lettering”, v.), from in- + grossus (“great, big, thick”), from Old High German grōz (“big, thick, coarse”), from Proto-West Germanic *graut, from Proto-Germanic *grautaz (“large, great, thick, coarse grained, unrefined”), from Proto-Indo-European *ghrewə- (“to fell, put down, fall in”). More at in-, gross. By surface analysis, en- + gross.

1. To write (a document) in large, aesthetic, and legible lettering; to make a finalized copy of.

   “This envelope had the air of an official record of some period long past, when clerks engrossed their stiff and formal chirography on more substantial materials than at present.”

   “laws that may be engrossed upon a finger nail”

2. To buy up wholesale, especially to buy the whole supply of (a commodity etc.).
3. To monopolize; to concentrate (something) in the single possession of someone, especially unfairly.

   “After which time the Popes of Rome, engroſſing what they pleas'd of Politicall rule into their owne hands, extended their dominion over mens eyes, as they had before over their judgements, burning and prohibiting to be read, what they fanſied not; […]”

   “The Coral Islands are principally visited by the pearl-shell fishermen, who arrive in small schooners, carrying not more than five or six men. For a long while the business was engrossed by Merenhout, the French Consul at Tahiti, but a Dutchman by birth, who, in one year, is said to have sent to France fifty thousand dollars' worth of shells.”

4. To completely engage the attention of; to involve.

   “She seems to be completely engrossed in that book.”

   “Having made a few vain attempts at engrossing my attention in my book, I was obliged to let myself be carried away by the impetuous torrent of the squire's eloquence.”

5. To thicken; to condense.

   “As, when a foggy miſt hath ouercaſt / The face of heuen, and the cleare ayre engroſte, / The world in darkenes dwels, […]”

6. To make gross, thick, or large; to thicken; to increase in bulk or quantity.

   “The waues thereof ſo ſlow and ſluggiſh were, / Engroſt with mud, which did them fowle agriſe, / That euery weighty thing they did vpbeare, / Ne ought mote euer ſinck downe to the bottom there.”

   “Not ſleeping to ingroſſe his idle body, / But praying to inrich his watchfull ſoule.”

7. To amass.

   “Percy is but my factor, good my Lord, / To engroſſe vp glorious deeds on my behalfe.”