invest

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To commit (money or capital) in order to gain a financial return: invested their savings in stocks and bonds.
2. v. To spend or devote for future advantage or benefit: invested much time and energy in getting a good education.
3. v. To devote morally or psychologically, as to a purpose; commit: "Men of our generation are invested in what they do, women in what we are” ( Shana Alexander).
4. v. To endow with authority or power.
5. v. To install in office with ceremony: invest a new emperor.
6. v. To endow with an enveloping or pervasive quality: "A charm invests a face/Imperfectly beheld” ( Emily Dickinson).
7. v. To clothe; adorn.
8. v. To cover completely; envelop.
9. v. To surround with troops or ships; besiege. See Synonyms at besiege.
10. v. To make investments or an investment: invest in real estate.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To cover with or as if with a garment or vesture; clothe; indue: followed by with, and sometimes in, before the thing covering: opposed to divest.
2. To clothe or attire with; put on.
3. To clothe or indue, as with office or authority; hence, to accredit with some quality or attribute; indue by attribution: followed by with: as, to invest a narrative with the charm of romance; to invest a friend with every virtue.
4. In law, to put in possession of something to be held as a matter of right; instate or install: as, to invest a man with rank, dignity, etc.
5. To confer; give; vest.
6. To surround; hem in or about; especially, to surround with hostile intent, or in such a way as to prevent approach or escape; surround with troops, military works, or other barriers; beleaguer.
7. To employ for some profitable use; convert into some other form of wealth, usually of a more or less permanent nature, as in the purchase of property or shares, or in loans secured by mortgage, etc.: said of money or capital: followed by in: as, to invest one's means in lands or houses, or in bank-stock, government bonds, etc.; to invest large sums in books.
8. To make an investment: as, to invest in railway shares.

Wiktionary

1. n. meteorology An unnamed tropical weather pattern "to investigate" for development into a significant (named) system.
2. v. dated To clothe or wrap (with garments).
3. v. To envelop, wrap, cover.
4. v. To commit money or capital in the hope of financial gain.
5. v. To spend money, time, or energy into something, especially for some benefit or purpose.
6. v. To ceremonially install someone in some office.
7. v. To formally give someone some power or authority.
8. v. To lay siege to.
9. v. intransitive : To make investments.
10. v. metallurgy To prepare for lost wax casting by creating an investment mold (a mixture of a silica sand and plaster).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To put garments on; to clothe; to dress; to array; -- opposed to divest. Usually followed by with, sometimes by in.
2. v. obsolete To put on.
3. v. To clothe, as with office or authority; to place in possession of rank, dignity, or estate; to endow; to adorn; to grace; to bedeck
4. v. To surround, accompany, or attend.
5. v. rare To confer; to give.
6. v. (Mil.) To inclose; to surround or hem in with troops, so as to intercept reinforcements of men and provisions and prevent escape; to lay siege to.
7. v. To lay out (money or capital) in business with the view of obtaining an income or profit.
8. v. To expend (time, money, or other resources) with a view to obtaining some benefit of value in excess of that expended, or to achieve a useful pupose.
9. v. To make an investment; ; -- usually followed by in.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. furnish with power or authority; of kings or emperors
2. v. give qualities or abilities to
3. v. place ceremoniously or formally in an office or position
4. v. provide with power and authority
5. v. make an investment