engageen‧gage /ɪnˈɡeɪdʒ/ ●○○ verb formal 
Only 10% of American adults engage in regular exercise. The two parties engaged upon an escalating political struggle. Mr Armstrong was engaged in prayer.engage in doing something Despite her illness, she remains actively engaged in shaping policy.2[transitive] to attract someone’s attention and keep them interestedengage somebody’s interest/attention The toy didn’t engage her interest for long.engage somebody in conversation (=start talking to them)3engage with somebody/something to get involved with other people and their ideas in order to understand them: Are you so tired you don’t have the energy to engage with your kids?4[transitive] formal to employ someone to do a particular jobengage somebody to do something Her father engaged a tutor to improve her maths.engage somebody as something We’d be able to engage local people as volunteers.5[intransitive, transitive] if you engage part of a machine, or if it engages, it moves so that it fits into another part of the machine OPP disengage: She engaged the clutch and the car moved.engage with The wheel engages with the cog and turns it.6[intransitive, transitive] to begin to fight an enemy: American forces did not directly engage.
WORD ORIGINengage
Origin:
1500-1600 French engager, from gage ‘something given as a promise’VERB TABLE
engage
| Simple Form | ||
| Present | I, you, we, they | engage |
| he, she, it | engages | |
| Past | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | engaged |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have engaged |
| he, she, it | has engaged | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had engaged |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will engage |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have engaged |
| Continuous Form | ||
| Present | I | am engaging |
| he, she, it | is engaging | |
| you, we, they | are engaging | |
| Past | I, he, she, it | was engaging |
| you, we, they | were engaging | |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have been engaging |
| he, she, it | has been engaging | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had been engaging |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will be engaging |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have been engaging |
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Paul was engaged as a junior clerk at a very low wage.
- She engaged the clutch and put the car into first gear.
- She is a storyteller who can engage the children's imagination.
- The two armies engaged at dawn.
- The vet was increasingly busy and had to engage two new assistants.
- All students should engage in intellectually challenging work and should graduate on the basis of what they know and can do.
- And if you have a deadlock system, don't forget to engage it.
- I was engaged in enquiry into the matter when I learnt of the attack upon her sister.
- No Man has more wit, nor can any one engage the attention more than Mr Morris.
- She didn't appear to beat all like the kind of lady who would be engaging a maid.
- Trained to futility by now, we will be ready to engage in further enterprises of a futile nature.
Longman Language Activatorto give someone a job
· If I give you the job, how soon can you begin?· After law school, he was given a job in the city's legal department.give sb a job as · Goldman gave her a job as his assistant.
also hire especially American to give someone a job and pay them for the work they do for you: · Since he came out of prison no one will employ him.· The company has been accused of not hiring enough women.employ as: · I was employed as a night-watchman by the local hospital.· She was hired as marketing director for a biotechnology firm.
if a company takes on someone, it gives them a job - use this especially about a job that might not be permanent or when a lot of people are given jobs at the same time: take on somebody: · We're not taking on any more staff at the moment.take somebody etc on: · Franklin needed an assistant, and he got funding from the department to take one on. take somebody on as something: · The director took me on as a messenger while they were filming in my village.
British formal to give someone a job: · The vet was increasingly busy and had to engage two new assistants.engage somebody as something: · Paul was engaged as a junior clerk at a very low wage.
to choose someone for a job, especially an important job: · The French president has appointed a new Minister for Culture.· The committee was appointed to make recommendations on housing development in the area.appoint somebody as director/manager etc: · When he was governor, Brown appointed Rose Bird as chief justice of the California Supreme Court.appoint somebody director/manager etc: · Schreiber was appointed director of human resources.appoint somebody to a job/post/ position etc: · This is the first time that a woman has been appointed to the post.
to find new people to work for a company or organization such as the army: · The police department is trying to recruit more black officers.· It's getting more and more difficult to recruit experienced staff.
also sign American if a football team, record company, film company etc signs up or signs someone, they agree to give them a job and make them sign an official contract: · Allegre was signed by the New York Jets.· Six episodes of the show have been taped, and the actors have been signed for six more.sign up somebody: · England soccer star Paul Gascoigne was signed up by a top Italian club.sign somebody up: · The band have just completed a highly successful US tour, and several record companies have offered to sign them up.
WORD SETSabsenteeism, nounarticled clerk, black economy, nounbloodletting, nounblue-collar, adjectivebook-keeper, nounboss, nounbusiness agent, career path, nouncareer structure, nounCFO, Chartered Financial Consultant, nounCIO, co-manager, nouncommercial agent, company car, nouncompany doctor, company officer, competence, nouncompliance officer, co-worker, nouncreative director, curriculum vitae, nounCV, noundeputy chairman, deskill, verbdismiss, verbdowngrade, verbdownsize, verbearn, verbearner, nounemploy, verbemployable, adjectiveemployee, nounemployer, nounemployment agency, nounengage, verbenrolled agent, escrow agent, executive chairman, filing clerk, fill-in, nounfull-time, adjectiveheadhunter, nounhealth and safety, nounhuman resources, nounjob application, job centre, nounjobless, adjectivelabour exchange, nounledger clerk, moonlight, verbnatural wastage, nounnepotism, nounnetworking, nounnine to five, adverbnumber-cruncher, nounoccupational, adjectiveoff, adverboff-duty, adjectiveoperative, nounoutwork, nounoverseer, nounoverstaffed, adjectivepenalty clause, nounpension fund, nounpension plan, nounpersonnel, nounpiecework, nounpositive discrimination, nounpost, nounpreferment, nounproject engineer, qualification, nounqualify, verbquit, verbrecommendation, nounrecruit, verbredeploy, verbredundancy, nounredundant, adjectivereferee, nounreference, nounreinstate, verbresearch manager, resign, verbresignation, nounresume, nounretired, adjectiveretiree, nounretirement, nounself-employed, adjectivesharecropper, nounshift, nounskilled, adjectivetechnical analyst, testimonial, nountime and motion study, nountrainee, nountransfer agent, underemployed, adjectiveundermanned, adjectiveunderstaffed, adjectiveunemployable, adjectiveunemployed, adjectiveunemployment, noununemployment benefit, noununskilled, adjectivevacancy, nounvacant, adjectivewhite-collar, adjectiveworkday, nounwork experience, nounworkforce, nounworking papers, nounworkweek, noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY Despite her illness, she remains actively engaged in shaping policy. The toy didn’t engage her interest for long. He was silent, no matter how hard Sofia tried to engage him in conversation.
Despite her illness, she remains actively engaged in shaping policy. The toy didn’t engage her interest for long. (=start talking to them)
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES formal (=take part)· Police suspect he may have engaged in criminal activities.
formal (=to fight someone)· The president said he was aware of the danger to forces engaged in combat in the field.
(=start to employ one)· The company hired an outside consultant to review staffing levels.
He was silent, no matter how hard Sofia tried to engage him in conversation. (=put the car into gear)· Nick struggled to engage first gear.
· He’s rich enough to hire a good lawyer.
(=pleasant, so that people like you)· He is strikingly handsome with a very engaging personality.
· The country did not want to engage in warfare.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB· In order to participate meaningfully within the community members of this group must actively engage in the issues that confront them.· The hum of voices is purpose ful; all are actively engaged.· Barely 7,000 are actively engaged in film-making.· Teachers actively engage in working for progressive education, defending the curriculum they developed and finding ways to expand it.· You can not pretend that is not actively engaged in assaulting her integrity.· Many companies are actively engaged in exports.· Called to actively engage with the outside world.· He was in the midst of his life and actively engaged in it.
· The news of busy, wanted school libraries can help all of us engaged in providing books and related services to schools.· The news media are increasingly inclined to engage in, or report on, the verbal brawl.· During the next few years children are likely to be engaging in more sustained projects as part of their learning of mathematics.· For now, each branch of the military is studying how to engage in and protect itself against information warfare.· In practice, however, a great many well-established businesses engage in highly successful entrepreneurship.· Why is engaging in a two-way logical conversation so difficult for some children?· Policy discontinuity frustrated industrialists and investors who wished to engage in forward planning: they could not anticipate stability in government programs.
· The two leaders went to military headquarters for confirmation and were told that the staff were otherwise engaged.· Government officials are not allowed to raise campaign funds or otherwise engage in partisan political activity.· Fingers subconsciously searching out damage beneath the glossy surface, while he otherwise engages in conversation.· This satisfies him and allows the other adventurers to run and escape automatically while the Champion is otherwise engaged.
NOUN· None the less, a person who gives reasons is engaging in a valuable activity.· Were the people you called engaged in illegal activities?· They were expressly forbidden to engage in any other activities, of course.· Similarly, parents instruct their children not to smoke or drink, yet the parents may engage in those activities themselves.· Almost a quarter of the couples had engaged in no activity together with people from outside the household.· The larger working-class and poor population generally finds it necessary to engage in multiple economic activities at the household level.· State-owned television used a film of the episode to accuse conference participants of engaging in decadent activity.· Without a self that others can accept, we could not engage in the activities that maintain us as a society.
· He ploughed on, trying to outline his plans for the paper, and engage Sutton's attention.· No Man has more wit, nor can any one engage the attention more than Mr Morris.· It wasn't Friern that was engaging our attention ....· These three examples suggest certain abilities in a new-born that can not fail to engage the attention of new parents.· It was the man who engaged the attention of Blind Hugh, one of the beggars on early duty at Pearl Dock.· Neither of these responses seriously engages our attention on performance.· Aesthetic attention, therefore, consists of engaging the focus of attention in a heightened sustained discrimination.· Blacks troubled him most because the sight of a white worker emptying shit cans engaged their attention.
· At least 200 rebels, massed towards Gifunzo in Rutana Province, were engaged in battle.· Our country is engaged in a pitched battle in a fiercely competitive commercial world.· They explain that the patient is engaged in a legal battle with his brother over some land.· Police and demonstrators regularly engage in running battles near Mr Suharto's home in central Jakarta.· Earlier in the day, warriors will engage in mock battle.· Across the table from Kelly, Annie and Bill were engaged in a silent battle of wills.· My feelings and my thoughts were engaged in a battle royal inside me.
· Accountants, lawyers and other professionals who engage in such business would face enormous fines and up to 10 years' imprisonment.· Her family were townsmen engaged in business.· Guarantees of economic freedoms included explicit recognition of the right of citizens to engage in private business.· QQDling v. Anglish for HANDln, to engage in business or commercial activity.· In the 1960s women could neither engage in business nor launch political careers.
· Once engaged in hand-to-hand combat in this way the Squig Hopper is pinioned to the ground and does not move away.· A few people close to their chairs amuse themselves by watching the others engage in mortal combat to secure a seat.· He'd jumped down, engaging in combat with a huge Mameluke.· Higher animals also engage in playful combat and other forms of competitive behaviour.· Helmeted, armed with long, spear-like boards, the surfers looked like gladiators going out to engage in mortal combat.· If the target is engaged in hand-to-hand combat the spell will also affect all troops which are fighting against it.· Infantry, he added, deliberately placed themselves in positions where they would be engaged in hand-to-hand combat.
· In the office, some girls have engaged the secretary in conversation.· They do not engage in conversation, nor do their faces express a desire to.· Lydia felt briefly sorry for her and attempted to engage her in conversation, but it was no good.· Imagine that you could engage in a conversation with the political gladiator, contemporary or historical, who most fascinates you.· Fingers subconsciously searching out damage beneath the glossy surface, while he otherwise engages in conversation.· Through the all-night watches he engaged officers in conversation, asked them questions about world affairs.· He'd got engaged in a conversation with Morag and was taking his time, but who could blame him?· His favorite tactic was to engage in conversation as a way of avoiding work.
· Instead, they say industry should engage in the debate to promote the life-saving benefits from testing treatments on animals.· Very few environmentalists would choose to engage in a debate about the extent to which they had either succeeded or sold out.
· On the analysis offered here, rationality is partly a matter of engaging in a dialogue with others in an appropriate way.· Occasionally the child makes a comment, and the two may engage in brief dialogue.· You refused to engage in a dialogue with it.· Town and country here are engaged in the age-old dialogue between advanced civilizations and primitive cultures.· They 100 engage more in a dialogue that involves planning and equitable exchanges or balances of advantage.
· This should take place at a time when the individual is able to engage in detailed discussion.· At some time, most of us have engaged in a discussion about the possibility of a utopian society.· None the less those who engaged in frequent political discussions became particularly aware of the Conservative Party's stress on defence.· And the president would typically engage them in a discussion of whatever issues they were talking about.· Work-inhibited students enjoy learning and frequently engage in classroom discussions. 8.
· Duck himself as a thresher in Wiltshire engaged in an ordinary form of agricultural labour.· She would accept students at the margins, but she acknowledged that she was engaging in a form of triage.· Over 90 percent of 3-4 year-olds are engaged in some form of group activity.· Federal law prohibits IRS-approved public charities from engaging in any form of partisan conduct.· Do they conjure up the impression that children are engaged in some form of pre-Victorian drudgery at school?· We could always engage in the Rawlsian form of argument and apply it to the new information once it becomes available.· Partners must not engage in any form of enterprise which is in competition with the partnership.· Both Roeg and Russell could engage with popular cinematic forms in a way that the directors around Anderson could not.
· How royal conflicts could engage these various interests is best seen through a detailed investigation of one particular crisis.· But it should be lively enough to engage the interest and the future assistance of better analysts.· It failed to engage my interest.· They keep you talking by asking questions in order to attempt to engage your interest in whatever they are selling.· An artefact from the past can be used to engage interest and awaken curiosity.· There was at first little to engage his political interest, but this changed after Eden's resignation in February 1938.
· Nor do fans see themselves as engaging in a kind of working-class resistance to the commercialization of football in any straight forward sense.· Yet some union leadership engaged in a kind of reality denial.· The writer is engaged in a kind of vicarious interaction with a presumed reader and anticipates and provides for likely reactions.· Microsoft recommends it only when the power supply is unreliable or when you are engaged in certain kinds of development work.· Both were engaged in the same kind of activity, in exploring accounts of the world through participation in a conversation.· Besides governments, it is likely that only the largest companies will engage in any kind of record retention and archive management.
· How can the time and opportunities for children to engage in these tasks be maximized?· Yet we systematically deny these individuals the opportunity to engage in meaningful ways with the adult world.· But the occasional visitor who is wanting more will find that he has a genuine opportunity to engage in worthwhile learning.· It offers an opportunity to engage in group delinquency and, occasionally, in group fights.
· They frequented the tavern and engaged in unspecified lewd practices.· Team members might engage in discriminatory practices or hire only friends or relatives.
· It is concerned with understanding the world and has a set of distinctive methodological devices for engaging in that process.· Since long before Stonewall, gay men have engaged in a process of self-invention.· We accepted the Secretary of State's invitation to engage in the consultation process which he initiated.· When an organization as a whole is engaged in the process of denial, its individual members often follow suit.· Moral entrepreneurs engage in the process of establishing moral rules by attempting to define certain actions or forms of behaviour as deviant.· They are engaged in a process of discovery that is its own reward.· From 1975 to 1979, Mrs Thatcher was engaged in a process not dissimilar from that which Mr Kinnock now presides over.
· We would have to say, for example, that staff responsible for research students have a definite obligation to engage in research.· At the time of his selection, Foss was working in private industry, engaged in high-altitude research.· Undoubtedly we have further to go in this, and the Institute is engaged in longer-term research into competence-based assessment.· Lecturer Lecturers engage in teaching and research.· All three tutors were engaged in research into various aspects of Language in Education.· They come close to enjoining all scientists to refuse to engage in military research but then back off at the last moment.· This does not imply that all teachers should engage in research.· My father was engaged in research in tropical diseases, and he used to take me around his laboratory in Mill Hill.
· Neo-Classicism was engaged in a struggle for its survival.· It did not engage in the struggle for mass cultural-political hegemony.· When cells fuse, the rival bacteria in each engage in a struggle to the death.· Gary was used to trying to make the rules and then engaging in endless power struggles over them with his son.
· A Cherokee with an instructor and student on board was engaged in circuits and landings on Runway 22.· Even outstanding teachers have difficulty getting these students to engage in the work of school.· All students should engage in intellectually challenging work and should graduate on the basis of what they know and can do.· We want the student engaged, active, working together.· One teacher recruited three parent helpers to help one fourth-grade student who could not engage in lengthy writing projects.· Indeed, the notion that all students should engage in serious academic work and learn it deeply is a relatively recent phenomenon.· Yet despite a bumpy first year, most students were engaged in productive work.· Glasser stresses that reluctant students engage in the work of school simply because they share a positive relation-ship with their teacher.
· It was not uncommon for critics at this time to be engaged in character study and reconstructions of plot and chronology.· We intend to persuade the Church to engage in policy studies with the aim of developing people-oriented policies for the communication task.
· How can the time and opportunities for children to engage in these tasks be maximized?· The children performed these tasks either silently or while engaging in a task designed to suppress their vocalisation of the word names.· Those that remained were engaged on tasks of economic importance.· Having nothing much to do while children are engaged in undemanding tasks that offer little opportunity for the support teacher's intervention.· All carers whatever their titles or financial status are likely to be engaged in tasks of tending with vulnerable elderly people.· There must therefore be another process at work affecting performance, a process which is engaged for certain tasks but not for others.· The part-braided ends of his long hair escaped from the busy fingers which were engaged in their intricate task.
· Five are engaged in trade promotion.· If you are engaged in foreign trade, would loans or an overdraft in foreign currency help you?· The booty did not teach the Pisans how to engage in trade, any more than it taught them how to govern.
· Cities and states oblige them by engaging in bidding wars.· Great Groups are engaged in holy wars.· Catholic morality approves of the view that to repel an aggressor is to engage in a just war.· Different ethnic groups within the country have been engaged in a civil war for more than forty-five years.· He was engaging in a war of nerves with her, Isabel realised at last, but he didn't remember.· The Administration would have neither the men nor the money to engage actively in war.· McKinsey denied it was engaging in a turf war over branding.· In this species the two parents' chloroplasts engage in a war of attrition that destroys 95 percent of them.
· MacLauchlan never married, lodging in the Lambeth and Clapham areas of London when not engaged on archaeological work.· Even outstanding teachers have difficulty getting these students to engage in the work of school.· They are a group of campesinos who are all engaged in other work.· All students should engage in intellectually challenging work and should graduate on the basis of what they know and can do.· Of the University's total population of about 16,000 students, over 3,500 are engaged in postgraduate work.· Whether they choose to engage in serious intellectual work or not is up to them.· In St Luke's Hospital he would not have been allowed to engage in demanding intellectual work.· Bechtel will manage much of the project but not engage in any construction work.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
1[intransitive always + preposition] to be doing or to become involved in an activityengage in/on/upon- Oonagh was beautiful, but I was ... otherwise engaged.
- The people in the town who may need a spot of positive thinking more than anybody else will be otherwise engaged.
- The two leaders went to military headquarters for confirmation and were told that the staff were otherwise engaged.
- They were eating, sleeping, defecating, or otherwise engaged in some momentous enterprise.
- This satisfies him and allows the other adventurers to run and escape automatically while the Champion is otherwise engaged.
Only 10% of American adults engage in regular exercise. The two parties engaged upon an escalating political struggle. Mr Armstrong was engaged in prayer.engage in doing something Despite her illness, she remains actively engaged in shaping policy.2[transitive] to attract someone’s attention and keep them interestedengage somebody’s interest/attention The toy didn’t engage her interest for long.engage somebody in conversation (=start talking to them)3engage with somebody/something to get involved with other people and their ideas in order to understand them: Are you so tired you don’t have the energy to engage with your kids?4[transitive] formal to employ someone to do a particular jobengage somebody to do something Her father engaged a tutor to improve her maths.engage somebody as something We’d be able to engage local people as volunteers.5[intransitive, transitive] if you engage part of a machine, or if it engages, it moves so that it fits into another part of the machine OPP disengage: She engaged the clutch and the car moved.engage with The wheel engages with the cog and turns it.6[intransitive, transitive] to begin to fight an enemy: American forces did not directly engage.