(engages, engaging, engaged)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
If you engage in an activity, you do it or are actively involved with it. (FORMAL)
I have never engaged in the drug trade...
VERB: V in n
2.
If something engages you or your attention or interest, it keeps you interested in it and thinking about it.
They never learned skills to engage the attention of the others.
VERB: V n
3.
If you engage someone in conversation, you have a conversation with them.
They tried to engage him in conversation...
VERB: V n in n
4.
If you engage with something or with a group of people, you get involved with that thing or group and feel that you are connected with it or have real contact with it.
She found it hard to engage with office life...
VERB: V with n
• engagement
And she, too, suffers from a lack of critical engagement with the literary texts.
N-UNCOUNT: usu N with n
5.
If you engage someone to do a particular job, you appoint them to do it. (FORMAL)
We engaged the services of a recognised engineer...
VERB: V n
6.
When a part of a machine or other mechanism engages or when you engage it, it moves into a position where it fits into something else.
Press the lever until you hear the catch engage.
...a lesson in how to engage the four-wheel drive.
VERB: V, V n
7.
When a military force engages the enemy, it attacks them and starts a battle.
It could engage the enemy beyond the range of hostile torpedoes.
VERB: V n
8.