KJV Dictionary Definition: engage

engage

ENGA'GE, v.t.

1. To make liable for a debt to a creditor; to bind one's self as surety.

2. To pawn; to stake as a pledge.

3. To enlist; to bring into a party; as, to engage men for service; to engage friends to aid in a cause.

4. To embark in an affair; as, be not hasty to engage yourself in party disputes.

5. To gain; to win and attach; to draw to.

Good nature engages every one to its possessor.

To very duty he could minds engage.

6. To unite and bind by contract or promise. Nations engage themselves to each other by treaty. The young often engage themselves to their sorrow.

7. To attract and fix; as, to engage the attention.

8. To occupy; to employ assiduously. We were engaged in conversation. The nation is engaged in war.

9. To attack in contest; to encounter. The army engaged the enemy at ten o'clock. The captain engaged the ship, at point blank distance.

ENGA'GE, v.i. To encounter; to begin to fight; to attack in conflict. The armies engaged at Marengo, in a general battle.

1. To embark in any business; to take a concern in; to undertake. Be cautious not to engage in controversy, without indispensable necessity.

2. To promise or pledge one's word; to bind one's self; as, a friend has engaged to supply the necessary funds.

engaged

ENGA'GED, pp. or a. Pledged; promised; enlisted; gained and attached; attracted and fixed; embarked; earnestly employed; zealous.

engagement

ENGA'GEMENT, n. The act of pawning, pledging or making liable for debt.

1. Obligation by agreement or contract. Men are often more ready to make engagements than to fulfil them.

2. Adherence to a party or cause; partiality.

3. Occupation; employment of the attention.

Play, by too long or constant engagement, becomes

like an employment or profession.

4. Employment in fighting; the conflict of armies or fleets; battle; a general action; appropriately the conflict of whole armies or fleets, but applied to actions between small squadrons or single ships, rarely to a fight between detachments of land forces.

5. Obligation; motive; that which engages.

engager

ENGA'GER, n. One that enters into an engagement or agreement.

engaging

ENGA'GING, ppr. Pawning; making liable for debt; enlisting; bringing into a party or cause; promising; binding; winning and attaching; encountering; embarking.

1. Winning; attractive; tending to draw the attention or the affections; pleasing; as engaging manners or address.

engagingly

ENGA'GINGLY, adv. In a manner to win the affections.

Definitions from Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828.
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