engaged
/ɪnˈɡeɪd͡ʒd/
engaged is the simple past and past participle of engage.
Adjective
engaged (not comparable)
- Having agreed to marry a particular person (one's fiancé or fiancée) or each other.
- Busy or employed.
- Dig if you will the picture / Of you and I engaged in a kiss / The sweat of your body covers me / Can you my darling / Can you picture this?1984, “When Doves Cry”, in Purple Rain, performed by Prince
- Greatly interested.
- (of a telephone) Already involved in a telephone call when a third party calls.
- I tried calling, but she (or her phone) was engaged.
- Synonyms:
- busy
- attached to a wall or sunk into it halfway
- in contact and in operation
- being attacked or attacking
- Having the widest part of its presenting part, usually the head, enter the pelvic brim or inlet.
- Synonym of engagé (“passionately committed to a cause”).
- Black and white women writers assumed their mantle as engaged writers, as cultural and political critics.2002, Maria Lauret, Liberating Literature, page 81
- Synonyms:
- engagé
Meaning of engage
Verb
engage (third-person singular simple present engages, present participle engaging, simple past and past participle engaged)
- To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied.
- Thus ſhall mankind his guardian care engage, / The promis'd father of the future age.1712 (date written), Alexander Pope, “Messiah. A Sacred Eclogue, in Imitation of Virgil’s Pollio.”, in The Works of Alexander Pope Esq. […], volume I, London: […] J[ohn] and P[aul] Knapton, H....
- Synonyms:
- immerse
- To draw into conversation.
- the difficult task of engaging him in conversation1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Introductory”, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC
- To attract, to please; (archaic) to fascinate or win over (someone).
- This humanity and good nature engages every body to him, so that when he is pleasant upon any of them all his family are in a good humour, and none so much as the person whom he diverts himself with: […]1711 July 12 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SUNDAY, July 2, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 106; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New...
- To enter into conflict with (an enemy).
- a favourable opportunity of engaging the enemy1698-1699, Edmund Ludlow, Memoirs
- To enter into battle.
- To arrange to employ or use (a worker, a space, etc.).
- For this scene, a large number of supers are engaged, and in order to further swell the crowd, practically all the available stage hands have to ‘walk on’ dressed in various coloured dominoes, and all wearing masks.1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition...
Synonyms of engaged
Words formed from engaged
Phrases with engaged
Words that rhyme with engaged
Questions about engaged
- What does engaged mean?
- Engaged means having agreed to marry a particular person (one's fiancé or fiancée) or each other.
- What is engaged the simple past and past participle of?
- Engaged is the simple past and past participle of engage.
- What part of speech is engaged?
- Engaged is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce engaged?
- Engaged is pronounced /ɪnˈɡeɪd͡ʒd/.
Words near engaged in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: engaged (page history and authors); engage (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-engaged.ogg.
Cite this entry: “engaged.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/engaged. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.