ENGAGE | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary

engage

verb

uk /ɪnˈɡeɪdʒ/ us /ɪnˈɡeɪdʒ/

engage verb (EMPLOY)

[ T ] mainly UK formal

to employ someone:

[ + to infinitive ] I have engaged a secretary to deal with all my paperwork.

We're engaging the services of a professional administrator.

More examples

• We've recently engaged a cleaner.
• She has been known to engage the services of a professional shopper.
• For these services he would otherwise have to engage a psychotherapist.
• A professional coach was immediately engaged.
• 240 stewards were engaged to ensure that the game went smoothly.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

 

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engage verb (INTEREST)

C1 [ T ] formal

to interest someone in something and keep them thinking about it:

The debate about food safety has engaged the whole nation.

If a book doesn't engage my interest in the first few pages, I don't usually continue reading it.

[ I ] formal

to become involved, or have contact, with someone or something:

She's an intelligent child but in class she doesn't really engage.

Just stay out of his way as much as possible, and don't engage with him.

More examples

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

engage verb (FIT TOGETHER)

[ I or T ]

to make one part of a machine fit into and move together with another part of a machine:

When the large gear wheel engages (with the smaller one), the mill stone will start to go round.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

engage verb (BEGIN FIGHTING)

[ I or T ]   military   specialized

to attack or begin to fight someone:

Enemy planes engaged the troops as they advanced into the mountains.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

engage verb (TEACH)

[ T ] Indian English

to teach someone, especially a class of children, or to keep someone busy

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Phrasal verb

engage in sth

engagé

adjective

  formal uk /ˌɒ̃.ɡæʒˈeɪ/ us/ˌɒ̃.ɡæʒˈeɪ/

especially of a writer, musician, artist, etc. interested in and taking part in politics

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

(Definition of engage from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

engage | American Dictionary

engage

verb

us /ɪnˈɡeɪdʒ/

engage verb (INTEREST)

[ T ]

to cause someone to become interested or involved in an activity, or to attract someone’s interest:

He wrote about things that engaged him.

engage verb (FIT TOGETHER)

[ I/T ]

to fit one part of a machine into another so they move together, or cause something to fit into and move together:

[ I ] The gears won’t engage.

[ T ] You need to engage second gear.

engage verb (BEGIN FIGHTING)

[ T ]

to attack or begin to fight an enemy in a military operation:

The marines engaged the enemy.

engage verb (EMPLOY)

[ T ]

to arrange to employ someone; hire:

She decided to engage a personal assistant.

Her family engaged a tutor to teach her French.

Phrasal verb

engage in something

(Definition of engage from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

engage | Business English

engage

verb [ T ]

uk /ɪnˈɡeɪdʒ/ us

to employ someone:

engage sb (to do sth) They have engaged accountancy firm Ernst & Young to approach financial institutions for funding on their behalf.

It would be prudent to engage the services of a lawyer to help with this matter.

(Definition of engage from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of engage

engage

Those engaged in mathematical and philosophical studies did the same.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Assertives engage the speaker regarding the truth of the statement he/she is making : the psychological state being expressed is a belief.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Readers, it appears, were invited to engage in reflexive fantasy by associating their desired state of being with that of a trained psychologist.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Elections may be nominally free, but governments engage in extensive gerrymandering, manipulation of voter registration and harassment of opposition parties.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Sensitivity and flexibility are needed for engaging with individual families, but accurate measurement is needed for systems control.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

To be fair, the book is explicitly an institutional history, and as such has no obligation to engage large historiographical themes.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The question of succession prompted families engaged in the same occupation to form an association that controlled members' marriages and inheritances.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

To engage its targets, the immune system must first perceive them and then, in a sense, decide whether to react.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This issue could be examined by repeating the study using different tasks that engaged the same set of cognitive processes.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

It is possible that most of them are engaged in illegal felling of trees.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Non-verbal cooperation was employed when the group was engaged in playing together and included musical and visual cues.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A few vessels show men engaged in different activities.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Thus, the individual chapters are in themselves generally engaging, yet cannot compensate for the volume's lack of theoretical rigour and integration.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

To protect informants and actors engaged in youth politics, they are not identified unless otherwise agreed.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Is there support to be drawn from violence prevention for this distinction or similar differentiation among youth engaged in violence and related antisocial behavior?