engagement

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: en=gage=ment

CIDE DICTIONARY

engagement, n. [Cf. F. engagement.].

•  The act of engaging, pledging, enlisting, occupying, or entering into contest.  [1913 Webster]
•  The state of being engaged, pledged or occupied; specif., a pledge to take some one as husband or wife.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "Religion, which is the chief engagement of our league."  [1913 Webster]
•  An action; a fight; a battle.  [1913 Webster]

  "In hot engagement with the Moors."  [1913 Webster]
•  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.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

engagement, 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.

Idiom

engagement ring a finger-ring given by a man to a woman when they promise to marry.

Etymology

F f. engager: see ENGAGE

THESAURUS

engagement

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

ROGET THESAURUS

engagement

Business

N business, occupation, employment, pursuit, what one is doing, what one is about, affair, concern, matter, case, matter in hand, irons in the fire, thing to do, agendum, task, work, job, chore, errand, commission, mission, charge, care, duty, part, role, cue, province, function, lookout, department, capacity, sphere, orb, field, line, walk, walk of life, beat, round, routine, race, career, office, place, post, chargeship, incumbency, living, situation, berth, employ, service, engagement, undertaking, vocation, calling, profession, cloth, faculty, industry, art, industrial arts, craft, mystery, handicraft, trade, exercise, work, avocation, press of business, businesslike, workaday, professional, official, functional, busy, on hand, in hand, in one's hands, afoot, on foot, on the anvil, going on, acting, in the course of business, all in one's day's work, professionally Adj, a business with an income at its heels, amoto quaeramus seria ludo, par negotiis neque supra.

VB pass one's time in, employ one's time in, spend one's time in, employ oneself in, employ oneself upon, occupy oneself with, concern oneself with, make it one's business, undertake, enter a profession, betake oneself to, turn one's hand to, have to do with, office, place, post, chargeship, incumbency, living, situation, berth, employ, service, engagement, undertaking, drive a trade, carry on a trade, do a trade, transact a trade, carry on business, do business, transact business, keep a shop, ply one's task, ply one's trade, labor in one's vocation, pursue the even tenor of one's way, attend to business, attend to one's work, officiate, serve, act, act one's part, play one's part, do duty, serve the office of, discharge the office of, perform the office of, perform the duties of, perform the functions of, hold an office, fill an office, fill a place, fill a situation, hold a portfolio, hold a place, hold a situation, be about, be doing, be engaged in, be employed in, be occupied with, be at work on, have one's hands in, have in hand, have on one's hands, have on one's shoulders, bear the burden, have one's hands full, be in the hands of, be on the stocks, be on the anvil, pass through one's hands, Adj, businesslike, workaday, professional, official, functional, busy, on hand, in hand, in one's hands, afoot, on foot, on the anvil, going on, acting, Adv, in the course of business, all in one's day's work, professionally.

Undertaking

N undertaking, compact, adventure, venture, engagement, enterprise, emprise, pilgrimage, matter in hand, move, first move, undertaking, on the anvil, Int, here goes!.

Contention

N contention, strife, contest, contestation, struggle, belligerency, opposition, controversy, polemics, debate, war of words, logomachy, litigation, paper war, high words, sparring, competition, rivalry, corrivalry, corrivalship, agonism, concours, match, race, horse racing, heat, steeple chase, handicap, regatta, field day, sham fight, Derby day, turf, sporting, bullfight, tauromachy, gymkhana, boat race, torpids, wrestling, greco-roman wrestling, pugilism, boxing, fisticuffs, the manly art of self-defense, spar, mill, set-to, round, bout, event, prize fighting, quarterstaff, single stick, gladiatorship, gymnastics, jiujitsu, jujutsu, kooshti, sumo, athletics, athletic sports, games of skill, shindy, fracas, clash of arms, tussle, scuffle, broil, fray, affray, affrayment, velitation, colluctation, luctation, brabble, brigue, scramble, melee, scrimmage, stramash, bushfighting, free fight, stand up fight, hand to hand, running fight, conflict, skirmish, rencounter, encounter, rencontre, collision, affair, brush, fight, battle, battle royal, combat, action, engagement, joust, tournament, tilt, tilting, tournay, list, pitched battle, death struggle, struggle for life or death, life or death struggle, Armageddon, hard knocks, sharp contest, tug of war, naval engagement, naumachia, sea fight, duel, duello, single combat, monomachy, satisfaction, passage d'armes, passage of arms, affair of honor, triangular duel, hostile meeting, digladiation, deeds of arms, feats of arms, appeal to arms, pugnacity, combativeness, bone of contention, contending, together by the ears, at loggerheads, at war, at issue, competitive, rival, belligerent, contentious, combative, bellicose, unpeaceful, warlike, quarrelsome, pugnacious, pugilistic, gladiatorial, palestric, palestrical, a verbis ad verbera, a word and a blow, a very pretty quarrel as it stands, commune periculum concordiam parit, lis litem generat.

Promise

N promise, undertaking, word, troth, plight, pledge, parole, word of honor, vow, oath, profession, assurance, warranty, guarantee, insurance, obligation, contract, stipulation, engagement, preengagement, affiance, betroth, betrothal, betrothment, promising, promissory, votive, under hand and seal, upon oath, promised, affianced, pledged, bound, committed, compromised, in for it, as one's head shall answer for, in for a penny in for a pound, ex voto, gage d'amour.