All 26 Uses of
engage
in
Frankenstein - 1831 version
- 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.
p. 18.2engage = hire
- I have hired a vessel and am occupied in collecting my sailors; those whom I have already engaged appear to be men on whom I can depend and are certainly possessed of dauntless courage.
p. 19.2 *engaged = hired
- I first became acquainted with him on board a whale vessel; finding that he was unemployed in this city, I easily engaged him to assist in my enterprise.
p. 20.5
- This circumstance, added to his well-known integrity and dauntless courage, made me very desirous to engage him.
p. 20.6engage = hire
- I have resolved every night, when I am not imperatively occupied by my duties, to record, as nearly as possible in his own words, what he has related during the day. If I should be engaged, I will at least make notes.
p. 31.9engaged = occupied (involved doing other things)
- Those of his successors in each branch of natural philosophy with whom I was acquainted appeared even to my boy's apprehensions as tyros engaged in the same pursuit.
p. 41.6engaged = involved
- All that had so long engaged my attention suddenly grew despicable.
p. 43.2engaged = occupied (involved)
- I, who had ever been surrounded by amiable companions, continually engaged in endeavouring to bestow mutual pleasure—I was now alone.
p. 46.6engaged = involved
- My application was at first fluctuating and uncertain; it gained strength as I proceeded and soon became so ardent and eager that the stars often disappeared in the light of morning whilst I was yet engaged in my laboratory.
p. 51.6engaged = occupied (involved)
- Two years passed in this manner, during which I paid no visit to Geneva, but was engaged, heart and soul, in the pursuit of some discoveries which I hoped to make.
p. 51.9 *
- The summer months passed while I was thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit.
p. 56.1
- You have guessed right; I have lately been so deeply engaged in one occupation that I have not allowed myself sufficient rest, as you see; but I hope, I sincerely hope, that all these employments are now at an end and that I am at length free.
p. 61.7engaged = involved
- The Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit languages engaged his attention, and I was easily induced to enter on the same studies.
p. 70.3engaged = occupied (involved)
- While I was thus engaged, Ernest entered: he had heard me arrive, and hastened to welcome me: "Welcome, my dearest Victor," said he.
p. 79.7engaged = involved
- She was dressed in mourning, and her countenance, always engaging, was rendered, by the solemnity of her feelings, exquisitely beautiful.
p. 83.7engaging = attractive (causing interest)
- The huts, the neater cottages, and stately houses engaged my admiration by turns.
p. 108.8engaged = attracted and involved
- I must perform my engagement and let the monster depart with his mate before I allowed myself to enjoy the delight of a union from which I expected peace.
p. 157.4engagement = promised job
- The latter method of obtaining the desired intelligence was dilatory and unsatisfactory; besides, I had an insurmountable aversion to the idea of engaging myself in my loathsome task in my father's house while in habits of familiar intercourse with those I loved.
p. 157.6engaging = involving
- I often refused to accompany him, alleging another engagement, that I might remain alone.
p. 164.2engagement = task to do
- His feelings are forever on the stretch; and when he begins to sink into repose, he finds himself obliged to quit that on which he rests in pleasure for something new, which again engages his attention, and which also he forsakes for other novelties.
p. 166.9engages = attracts and involves
- It was, indeed, a filthy process in which I was engaged.
p. 169.4engaged = involved
- Thus situated, employed in the most detestable occupation, immersed in a solitude where nothing could for an instant call my attention from the actual scene in which I was engaged, my spirits became unequal; I grew restless and nervous.
p. 169.6
- Three years before, I was engaged in the same manner and had created a fiend whose unparalleled barbarity had desolated my heart and filled it forever with the bitterest remorse.
p. 170.3
- I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like to him, and trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged.
p. 171.5engaged = working
- If I were engaged in any high undertaking or design, fraught with extensive utility to my fellow creatures, then could I live to fulfil it.
p. 215.5engaged = involved
- They insisted, therefore, that I should engage with a solemn promise that if the vessel should be freed I would instantly direct my course southwards.
p. 217.1engage = promise
Definitions:
-
(1)
(engage as in: engage in conversation) to interact in various ways -- such as to participate, involve, interest, or attractThe exact meaning of this sense of engage depends upon its context. For example:
- "They engaged in debate." -- participated
- "She engaged him in conversation." -- involved
- "She is an engaging conversationalist." -- interesting
- "She has an engaging smile." -- attractive (attracting interest and interaction)
- "The proposal engages the interest of many young voters." -- attracts and involves
- "She engages with her constituents." -- interacts in a meaningful way
-
(2)
(engage as in: engage her services) hire, reserve, book, or occupy
-
(3)
(engaged as in: engaged and then married) promised to marry
-
(4)
(engage as in: engage the enemy) begin fighting
-
(5)
(engage as in: engage the gears) move into position to work; or start
- (6) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)