engage

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To obtain or contract for the services of; employ: engage a carpenter.
2. v. To arrange for the use of; reserve: engage a room. See Synonyms at book.
3. v. To pledge or promise, especially to marry.
4. v. To attract and hold the attention of; engross: a hobby that engaged her for hours at a time.
5. v. To win over or attract: His smile engages everyone he meets.
6. v. To draw into; involve: engage a shy person in conversation.
7. v. To require the use of; occupy: Studying engages most of my time.
8. v. To enter or bring into conflict with: We have engaged the enemy.
9. v. To interlock or cause to interlock; mesh: engage the automobile's clutch.
10. v. To give or take as security.
11. v. To involve oneself or become occupied; participate: engage in conversation.
12. v. To assume an obligation; agree.
13. v. To enter into conflict or battle: The armies engaged at dawn.
14. v. To become meshed or interlocked: The gears engaged.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To pledge; bind as by pledge, promise, contract, or oath; put under an obligation to do or forbear doing something; specifically, to make liable, as for a debt to a creditor; bind as surety or in betrothal: with a reflexive pronoun or (rarely) a noun or personal pronoun as object: as, nations engage themselves to each other by treaty.
2. To pawn; stake; pledge.
3. To secure for aid, employment, use, or the like; put under requisition by agreement or bargain; obtain a promise of: as, to engage one's friends in support of a cause; to engage workmen; to engage a carriage, or a supply of provisions.
4. To gain; win and attach; draw; attract and fix: as, to engage the attention.
5. To occupy; employ the attention or efforts of: as, to engage one in conversation; to be engaged in war; to engage one's self in party disputes.
6. To enter into contest with; bring into conflict; encounter in battle: as, the army engaged the enemy at ten o'clock.
7. To interlock and become entangled; entangle; involve.
8. In mech., to mesh with and interact upon; enter and act or be acted upon; interlock with, as the teeth of geared wheels with each other, or the rack and pinion in a rack-and-pinion movement. Synonyms To commit, promise.
9. To pledge one's word; promise; assume an obligation; become bound; undertake: as, a friend has engaged to supply the necessary funds.
10. To occupy one's self; be busied; take part: as, to engage in conversation; he is zealously engaged in the cause.
11. To have an encounter; begin to fight; enter into conflict.
12. In fencing, to cross weapons with an adversary, pressing against his with sufficient force to prevent any manœuver from taking one unawares. Farrow, Mil. Encyc.
13. In machinery, to mesh and interact.
14. In construction, to fasten or let into a wall for support, as to secure a column to a wall. See engaged column, under column.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive To engross or hold the attention of (someone); to keep busy or occupied.
2. v. transitive To draw into conversation.
3. v. transitive To attract, to please; (archaic) to fascinate or win over (someone).
4. v. transitive To enter into conflict with (an enemy).
5. v. intransitive To enter into battle.
6. v. transitive To arrange to employ or use (a worker, a space, etc).
7. v. To mesh or interlock (of machinery, especially a clutch).
8. v. intransitive To enter into (an activity), to participate (construed with in).
9. v. intransitive To guarantee or promise (to do something).
10. v. transitive To bind through legal or moral obligation (to do something, especially to marry) (usually in passive).
11. v. obsolete, transitive To pledge, pawn (one's property); to put (something) at risk or on the line; to mortgage (houses, land).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To put under pledge; to pledge; to place under obligations to do or forbear doing something, as by a pledge, oath, or promise; to bind by contract or promise.
2. v. To gain for service; to bring in as associate or aid; to enlist
3. v. To gain over; to win and attach; to attract and hold; to draw.
4. v. To employ the attention and efforts of; to occupy; to engross; to draw on.
5. v. To enter into contest with; to encounter; to bring to conflict.
6. v. (Mach.) To come into gear with.
7. v. To promise or pledge one's self; to enter into an obligation; to become bound; to warrant.
8. v. To embark in a business; to take a part; to employ or involve one's self; to devote attention and effort; to enlist.
9. v. To enter into conflict; to join battle.
10. v. (Mach.) To be in gear, as two cogwheels working together.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. keep engaged
2. v. engage or hire for work
3. v. hire for work or assistance
4. v. consume all of one's attention or time
5. v. engage for service under a term of contract
6. v. get caught
7. v. carry on (wars, battles, or campaigns)
8. v. carry out or participate in an activity; be involved in
9. v. give to in marriage
10. v. ask to represent; of legal counsel