Adjacent Words

Engagement definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ENGA'GEMENT, n. The act of pawning, pledging or making liable for debt.
1. Obligation by agreement or contract. Men are often more ready to make engagements than to fulfil them.
2. Adherence to a party or cause; partiality.
3. Occupation; employment of the attention.
Play, by too long or constant engagement, becomes
like an employment or profession.
4. Employment in fighting; the conflict of armies or fleets; battle; a general action; appropriately the conflict of whole armies or fleets, but applied to actions between small squadrons or single ships, rarely to a fight between detachments of land forces.
5. Obligation; motive; that which engages.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war; "Grant won a decisive victory in the battle of Chickamauga"; "he lost his romantic ideas about war when he got into a real engagement" [syn: battle, conflict, fight, engagement]
2: a meeting arranged in advance; "she asked how to avoid kissing at the end of a date" [syn: date, appointment, engagement]
3: a mutual promise to marry [syn: betrothal, troth, engagement]
4: the act of giving someone a job [syn: employment, engagement]
5: employment for performers or performing groups that lasts for a limited period of time; "the play had bookings throughout the summer" [syn: engagement, booking]
6: contact by fitting together; "the engagement of the clutch"; "the meshing of gears" [syn: engagement, mesh, meshing, interlocking]
7: the act of sharing in the activities of a group; "the teacher tried to increase his students' engagement in class activities" [syn: engagement, participation, involvement, involution] [ant: non-engagement, non- involvement, nonparticipation]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1601 1. a. an arrangement to meet or be present at a specified time and place <a dinner engagement> b. a job or period of employment especially as a performer 2. something that engages ; pledge 3. a. the act of engaging ; the state of being engaged b. emotional involvement or commitment <seesaws between obsessive engagement and ambiguous detachment — Gary Taylor> c. betrothal 4. the state of being in gear 5. a hostile encounter between military forces

U.S. Military Dictionary

1. In air defense, an attack with guns or air-to-air missiles by an interceptor aircraft, or the launch of an air defense missile by air defense artillery and the missile's subsequent travel to intercept. 2. A tactical conflict, usually between opposing lower echelons maneuver forces. See also battle; campaign.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 the act or state of engaging or being engaged. 2 an appointment with another person. 3 a betrothal. 4 an encounter between hostile forces. 5 a moral commitment. Phrases and idioms: engagement ring a finger-ring given by a man to a woman when they promise to marry. Etymology: F f. engager: see ENGAGE

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Engagement En*gage"ment, n. [Cf. F. engagement.] 1. The act of engaging, pledging, enlisting, occupying, or entering into contest. 2. The state of being engaged, pledged or occupied; specif., a pledge to take some one as husband or wife. 3. That which engages; engrossing occupation; employment of the attention; obligation by pledge, promise, or contract; an enterprise embarked in; as, his engagements prevented his acceptance of any office. Religion, which is the chief engagement of our league. --Milton. 4. (Mil.) An action; a fight; a battle. In hot engagement with the Moors. --Dryden. 5. (Mach.) The state of being in gear; as, one part of a clutch is brought into engagement with the other part. Syn: Vocation; business; employment; occupation; promise; stipulation; betrothal; word; battle; combat; fight; contest; conflict. See Battle.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(engagements) 1. An engagement is an arrangement that you have made to do something at a particular time. (FORMAL) He had an engagement at a restaurant in Greek Street at eight. N-COUNT 2. An engagement is an agreement that two people have made with each other to get married. I've broken off my engagement to Arthur... N-COUNT: usu sing, usu poss N 3. You can refer to the period of time during which two people are engaged as their engagement. N-COUNT: usu sing, usu poss N 4. A military engagement is an armed conflict between two enemies. The constitution prohibits them from military engagement on foreign soil. N-VAR 5. see also engage

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Promise, stipulation, assurance, contract, pledge, obligation. 2. Plighting, betrothal, betrothment, affiancing. 3. Employment, occupation, business, calling, vocation, avocation. 4. Battle, conflict, combat, contest, action, fight, encounter, rencounter.

Foolish Dictionary

In war, a battle. In love, the salubrious calm that precedes the real hostilities.

Moby Thesaurus

Olympic games, Olympics, absorbed attention, absorption, action, affair, affiance, agreement, allurement, alternation, application, appointment, arrangement, assignation, association, attempt, banns, banns of matrimony, bargain, battle, berth, bespeaking, betrothal, betrothing, betrothment, billet, blandishment, blind date, booking, borscht circuit, bout, briefing, business, cajolement, cajolery, circuit, coaction, coaxing, cochairmanship, combat, commission, commitment, complementary distribution, complicity, concentration, concours, concurrence, condominium, conflict, conning, contemplation, contest, contract, contribution, cooperation, copartnership, copartnery, cotenancy, covenant, date, deal, deep study, deep thought, derby, double date, effort, embarrassment, employment, encounter, engagement book, engaging, engrossment, enlistment, enmeshment, entanglement, enterprise, espousal, exhortation, fight, game, games, get-together, gig, go, gymkhana, handfasting, having a part, hiring, hortation, immersion, implication, inclusion, incumbency, inducement, intentness, interaction, interchange, intercommunication, intercourse, interlacing, intermeshing, interplay, intertwining, interview, interweaving, interworking, invitation, involution, involvement, jawboning, job, joint chairmanship, joint control, joint ownership, joint tenancy, joust, lobbying, marriage contract, marriage proposal, match, matching, meditation, meet, meeting, mesh, meshing, monomania, moonlighting, obligation, obsession, offer of marriage, office, opening, operation, partaking, participation, partnership, persuasion, place, plan, playing engagement, pledge, plight, plighted faith, plighted troth, position, post, preaching, preachment, preengagement, preoccupation, profound thought, program, project, promise, proposal, proposition, quid pro quo, rally, rapt attention, recognizance, relation, rencontre, rendezvous, reservation, retainment, run, sales talk, salesmanship, second job, seesaw, selling, service, sharing, single-mindedness, situation, snow job, soft soap, solicitation, spot, stand, station, studiousness, study, suasion, submersion, suffrage, sweet talk, taking on, task, tenure, test, tilt, tit for tat, tour, tournament, tourney, trial, troth, tryst, understanding, undertaking, vacancy, vaudeville circuit, venture, verbal agreement, visit, voting, wheedling, word, work, working on