Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Employed, occupied, or busy.
- adjective Committed, as to a cause.
- adjective Pledged to marry; betrothed.
- adjective Involved in conflict or battle.
- adjective Being in gear; meshed.
- adjective Partly embedded in, built into, or attached to another part, as columns on a wall.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Affianced; betrothed: as, an engaged pair.
- Busy or occupied with matters which cannot be interrupted; not at leisure: as, when I call I always find him engaged.
- In architecture, partly built or sunk into, or having the appearance of being partly built or sunk into, something else: as, engaged columns.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Occupied; employed; busy.
- adjective Pledged; promised; especially, having the affections pledged; promised in marriage; affianced; betrothed.
- adjective Greatly interested; of awakened zeal; earnest.
- adjective Involved; esp., involved in a hostile encounter.
- adjective (Arch.) Same as Attached column. See under
Attach , v. t.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb Simple past tense and past participle of
engage . - adjective Agreed to be
married . - adjective
Busy oremployed . - adjective UK (of a telephone) Already involved in a
telephone call when a third party calls it - adjective architecture attached to a wall or sunk into it halfway
- adjective in contact and in operation
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective (of facilities such as telephones or lavatories) unavailable for use by anyone else or indicating unavailability; (`engaged' is a British term for a busy telephone line)
- adjective involved in military hostilities
- adjective having services contracted for
- adjective built against or attached to a wall
- adjective reserved in advance
- adjective (used of toothed parts or gears) interlocked and interacting
- adjective having ones attention or mind or energy engaged
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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It was all madness; he was in love, thoroughly attached to Lucy, and engaged, engaged as strongly as an honorable man need be.
VI. Illustrating the Laws of Attraction. Book VI—The Great Temptation 1917
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Had the ladies not all been driven from the city by the pestilence, I should most assuredly have engaged some one or more of them to solve the question, whether the doctor was engaged in offices of sympathy, or an affair of the heart -- or whether he was actually _engaged_ in any way.
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The usual consequences followed -- he could not earn money so fast as she could spend it; the house became a scene of discord; the daughter dressed in the fashion; learned to play on the piano; was taught to think that being engaged in any useful employment was very ungenteel; and that to be _engaged to be married_ was the chief end and aim of woman; the father died a bankrupt; the weak and frivolous mother lingered along in beggary, for a while, and then died of vexation and shame.
The American Frugal Housewife Lydia Maria Francis Child 1841
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I can't think worth a damn, i'm coughing every other word i type so anything remotely brain engaged is coming in really really short spurts ... if you're waiting on something from me ... it might take a while.
November 30th, 2005 mynxii 2005
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Like you, we put our beliefs into motion -- what we call "engaged ethics" -- from our perspectives within Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Jainism, Buddhism ... well, it's a long list, isn't it?
Rev. Jerry Campbell: An Email To President Obama Regarding Your National Prayer Breakfast Address Rev. Jerry Campbell 2012
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Like you, we put our beliefs into motion -- what we call "engaged ethics" -- from our perspectives within Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Jainism, Buddhism ... well, it's a long list, isn't it?
Rev. Jerry Campbell: An Email To President Obama Regarding Your National Prayer Breakfast Address Rev. Jerry Campbell 2012
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Like you, we put our beliefs into motion -- what we call "engaged ethics" -- from our perspectives within Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Jainism, Buddhism ... well, it's a long list, isn't it?
Rev. Jerry Campbell: An Email To President Obama Regarding Your National Prayer Breakfast Address Rev. Jerry Campbell 2012
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Like you, we put our beliefs into motion -- what we call "engaged ethics" -- from our perspectives within Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Jainism, Buddhism ... well, it's a long list, isn't it?
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Rev. Jerry Campbell 2012
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What keeps the reader thoroughly engaged is not drama but the high quality of Hadrian's thought and powers of observation.
Portrait of Power Embodied in a Roman Emperor Joseph Epstein 2010
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Moncrieff says it is vital that the international community remain engaged in Guinea after the elections to ensure stability in the country and the region.
Watchdog Groups Call for Reform, Accountability in Guinean Military 2010
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