Sample Sentences for
engage
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

engage as in:  engage in conversation

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    At the time, she was engaged in a research project at Stanford.
    engaged = involved
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    10% reported that they engage in at least one argument during most days.
    engage = participate
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    I admire her civic engagement and service to the community.
    engagement = meaningful interaction
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Show 10 more with 10 word variations
  • •
    She has an engaging writing style and a good turn of phrase.
    engaging = interesting
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    They were engaged in some wild conversation that made no sense to anyone but themselves.  (source)
    engaged = involved
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    The glitter of the rhinestones was answered by the glitter of the diamond in her engagement ring.†  (source)
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    I took a seat at my desk and tapped the Engage icon at the edge of my display.  (source)
    Engage = get involved
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    It was a year like so many others, with its spring, its engagements, its weddings, and its births.†  (source)
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    I went back to the sled, reached down to disengage the hook and when I did, the dogs exploded forward.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "dis-" in disengage means not or opposite. It reverses the meaning of engage as seen in words like disagree, disconnect, and disappear.
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    That means that Ms. Prior engages in very little reward-seeking behavior.†  (source)
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    How had he succeeded in disengaging himself?†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "dis-" in disengaging means not or opposite. It reverses the meaning of engaging as seen in words like disagree, disconnect, and disappear.
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    (ALICE goes apart and sits, her face bitter) MARGARET (Disengages from him, takes basket from her mother) We've brought you some things†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "dis-" in disengages means not or opposite. It reverses the meaning of engages as seen in words like disagree, disconnect, and disappear.
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    Marilla disengaged Anne's clinging hands stonily.  (source)
    disengaged = removed
    standard prefix: The prefix "dis-" in disengaged means not or opposite. It reverses the meaning of engaged as seen in words like disagree, disconnect, and disappear.
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engage as in:  engage her services

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    I would like to engage your services.
    engage = hire
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    I shall depart for the latter town in a fortnight or three weeks; and my intention is to hire a ship there, which can easily be done by paying the insurance for the owner, and to engage as many sailors as I think necessary among those who are accustomed to the whale-fishing.  (source)
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    It was Saturday and she had an important engagement.  (source)
    engagement = activity
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Show 10 more with 5 word variations
  • •
    Ah, you're cross with me because I've been engaged all week, aren't you?  (source)
    engaged = busy or occupied
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    He has an unexpected engagement.  (source)
    engagement = activity
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    I laughed again, and told him that having most of your social engagements occur at a children's hospital also did not encourage promiscuity, and then we talked about Peter Van Houten's amazingly brilliant comment about the sluttiness of time, and even though I was in bed and he was in his basement, it really felt like we were back in that uncreated third space, which was a place I really liked visiting with him.  (source)
    engagements = activities
  • •
    If in the opinion of Mr. Burnham the builder is not employing a sufficient force of men to complete the work on time, Mr. Burnham is authorized to engage men himself and charge the cost to the builder.  (source)
    engage = hire
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    And we all took the less explicable step of engaging the parlor of a suite in the Plaza Hotel.  (source)
    engaging = occupying
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    Still in wrist manacles, he wandered two miles out of Meridian where he discovered a small animal show and was immediately engaged to wash the camel.  (source)
    engaged = hired
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    The engagement was for three o'clock in the hotel's coffeehouse at the northwest corner of the ground floor.  (source)
    engagement = appointment
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    I'm not in the habit of making engagements in the middle of the night.  (source)
    engagements = appointments
  • •
    "I wished to engage Miss Crawford for the two first dances," was the explanation that followed, and brought Fanny to life again, enabling her, as she found she was expected to speak, to utter something like an inquiry as to the result.  (source)
    engage = book (get a promise from)
  • •
    The letter engaging us?  (source)
    engaging = hiring
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engaged as in:  engaged and then married

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    They knew each other for three years before they became engaged.
    engaged = in an agreement to marry
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    … the engagement was announced in the newspaper, the wedding gown, the shower …  (source)
    engagement = agreement to marry
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    They got engaged a few years after the launch of the OASIS.  (source)
    engaged = in an agreement to marry
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Show 10 more with 3 word variations
  • •
    There are several factors involved in this engagement.  (source)
    engagement = agreement to marry
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    He evidently remembered he was engaged to me, for he ran back out and kissed me swiftly in front of Jem.  (source)
    engaged = formally promised to be married
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    Maria, with only Mr. Rushworth to attend to her, and doomed to the repeated details of his day's sport, good or bad, his boast of his dogs, his jealousy of his neighbours, his doubts of their qualifications, and his zeal after poachers, subjects which will not find their way to female feelings without some talent on one side or some attachment on the other, had missed Mr. Crawford grievously; and Julia, unengaged and unemployed, felt all the right of missing him much more.  (source)
    unengaged = not in an agreement to marry
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unengaged means not and reverses the meaning of engaged. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
  • •
    "Luis has bragged about the engagement to everyone," said Hortensia.  (source)
    engagement = agreement to marry
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    Yet less than two years after Mrs. Leep left him, Leon surprised everyone by getting engaged to a woman he met at a celebrity pro-am golf tournament.  (source)
    engaged = entered into an agreement to marry
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    With any luck, by the New Year we will be celebrating the engagement of our beloved Prince Maxon to an enchanting, talented, and intelligent Daughter of Illea!  (source)
    engagement = agreement to marry
  • •
    This noon they became engaged!  (source)
    engaged = in an agreement to marry
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    Instead I found out about your engagement to somebody else in the newspaper.  (source)
    engagement = agreement to marry
  • •
    Are they husband and wife, are they divorced, engaged, what?  (source)
    engaged = in an agreement to marry
  • •
    Mother never told us that her family had opposed the engagement but we knew.  (source)
    engagement = agreement to marry
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engage as in:  engage the enemy

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    We will engage the enemy when they reach the river.
    engage = begin fighting
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    They're taught to enter the room exactly as we say, clear their lanes as we've instructed, and if there's a target they engage it or they handle it if it's a noncombatant.  (source)
    engage = attack
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    He decides to walk in the opposite direction from them, reasoning that the Russians are probably heading to engage with the Germans, so getting as far away as possible makes sense.  (source)
    engage = begin fighting
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Show 10 more with 6 word variations
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    He'd seen a distant Zero at Wake, but had never been engaged by one.  (source)
    engaged = attacked
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    Thus in the end we may find him in his form of man between the hours of noon and sunset, and so engage with him when he is at his most weak.  (source)
    engage = begin fighting
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    It is the seconds who settle upon the rules of engagement.  (source)
    engagement = battle
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    I felt I was dealing fate a serious blow by engaging such a handsome adversary.  (source)
    engaging = battling
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    Measured by the numbers of troops involved, these were small engagements, but the effect on American spirits could hardly have been greater, and just when all seemed lost.  (source)
    engagements = battles
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    Without concern for his own well-being, and with sword glinting, he slashed his way through Redd's soldiers, who looked like ordinary playing cards (albeit larger) when unengaged, but who now fanned out as if the hand of a giant poker player was spreading them across the green baize of a gaming table.  (source)
    unengaged = not fighting
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unengaged means not and reverses this meaning of engaged. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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    It was this man that Okonkwo threw in a fight which the old men agreed was one of the fiercest since the founder of their town engaged a spirit of the wild for seven days and seven nights.  (source)
    engaged = fought
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    If he crosses paths with Redd, he'll try to engage with her.  (source)
    engage = begin fighting
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    Both had recommended reforms to the rules of engagement, particularly concerning the use of deadly force.  (source)
    engagement = battle
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    They were the self-proclaimed saviors of the queendom; they should have been engaging Redd in battle, not talking about it.  (source)
    engaging = fighting
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engage as in:  engage the gears

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    I pulled the lever to engage the gears.
    engage = put to work
  • •
    Once the lockout was engaged, you couldn't disable it for two months.  (source)
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    There, resting on a mound of blanket rolls, is a silver sheath of arrows and a bow, already strung, just waiting to be engaged.  (source)
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Show 10 more with 5 word variations
  • •
    Atticus disengaged himself and looked at me.  (source)
    disengaged = untangled from his previous position
    standard prefix: The prefix "dis-" in disengaged means not or opposite. It reverses the meaning of engaged as seen in words like disagree, disconnect, and disappear.
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    The float rose in the sump pit twice an hour and the lights flickered as the motor engaged.  (source)
    engaged = began working
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    She made no response whatever to the clasp of his arm; she did not even try to disengage herself.  (source)
    disengage = separate
    standard prefix: The prefix "dis-" in disengage means not or opposite. It reverses the meaning of engage as seen in words like disagree, disconnect, and disappear.
  • •
    "What's your name?" he said, coming over and disengaging the rabbit from the snare.  (source)
    disengaging = removing
    standard prefix: The prefix "dis-" in disengaging means not or opposite. It reverses the meaning of engaging as seen in words like disagree, disconnect, and disappear.
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    I'd always associated belief in heaven with, frankly, a kind of intellectual disengagement.  (source)
    disengagement = the act of move something out of an interacting position
    standard prefix: The prefix "dis-" in disengagement means not or opposite. It reverses the meaning of engagement as seen in words like disagree, disconnect, and disappear.
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    Andy's encounter with the falling rock was very much on my mind every time I unclipped from the line to move around somebody even a small projectile would be enough to send me to the bottom of the face if it struck while I was disengaged from the rope.  (source)
    disengaged = not connected
  • •
    Finally, it stopped, and the machine engaged.  (source)
    engaged = began working
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    Red in the face, he tried to disengage himself from her embrace.  (source)
    disengage = separate
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    She disengaged herself from Jessica's grip.†  (source)
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    The engineer in the pit released the brake and engaged the drive gears.  (source)
    engaged = moved into position to work
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