invest

/ɪnˈvɛst/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ɪnˈvest/

invest verb: to spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in.

Verb

invest (third-person singular simple present invests, present participle investing, simple past and past participle invested)

To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in.
- We'd like to thank all the contributors who have invested countless hours into this event.
- The authors predicted that when believers were deeply invested in a world view that had social support, believers would maintain their beliefs even when actual events disproved their worldview.2025 November 4, Thomas Kelly, “Debunking “When Prophecy Fails””, in Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, volume 62, number 1, →DOI, →ISSN, page 1
(dated, transitive) To clothe or wrap (with garments).
- He was but shabbily apparelled in faded jacket and patched trowsers; a rag of a black handkerchief investing his neck.1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
(intransitive, obsolete) To put on (clothing).
- Cannot find one this girdle to invest!1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, book 4, canto 5, verse 18
Synonyms:

beclothe
To envelop, wrap, cover.
- Night / Invests the Sea, and wished Morn delayes1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1, ll. 207-8
To commit money or capital in the hope of financial gain.
To ceremonially install someone in some office.
To formally give (someone) some power or authority.
- Madam, whatſoeuer you eſteeme
  Of this ſucceſſe, and loſſe vnualued,
  Both may inueſt you Empreſſe of the Eaſt: […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
- I do invest you jointly with my power.c. 1603–06, William Shakespeare, King Lear, act 1, scene 1
To formally give (power or authority).
- For he saith, if there can be found such an inequality between man and man, as there is between man and beast, or between soul and body, it investeth a right of government: which seemeth rather an impossible case than an untrue sentence.a. 1626, Francis Bacon, An Advertisement Touching a Holy War
To surround, accompany, or attend.
- The scene was not without a mixture of awe such as must always invest the spectacle of the guilt and shame in a fellow-creature, before society shall have grown corrupt enough to smile, instead of shuddering, at it.1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
- For the most part, in this tropic whaling life, a sublime uneventfulness invests you; you hear no news; read no gazettes; extras with startling accounts of commonplaces never delude you into unnecessary excitements; you hear of no domestic afflictions; bankrupt securities; fall of stocks; are never...1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 35, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 171
To lay siege to.
- to invest a town
- When she related that a band of fanatics, after robbing a church of all its silver-plate, and burning the adjacent vicarage, drunk with their success, had invested the Castle, and cried aloud for ‘the man’ to be brought unto them, that he might be hewed to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal—[…]her...1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume IV, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 216
Synonyms:

besiege
(intransitive) To make investments.
To prepare for lost wax casting by creating an investment mold (a mixture of a silica sand and plaster).
(intransitive) To cause to be involved in; to cause to form strong attachments to.
- From early on in his career, Zola's work as a critic revealed just how heavily he was invested in the literary “dream of stone.”2004, Michael D. Garval, A Dream of Stone, University of Delaware Press, →ISBN, page 214
- She knew from watching him grow up that he didn't let that many people too close to him, but once he did, he was invested in that relationship.2014, Sarah Varland, Tundra Threat: Faith in the Face of Crime, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 107
(Spanish) To inaugurate the Prime Minister of Spain after a successful parliamentary vote.
- The outcome also makes it very difficult for Feijóo to become the next PM, because he does not have the support to be invested as such, unless there are changes in the initial positions of key players such as the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV).2023 July 24, Carlos Cué, “In Spain, the left's resistance thwarts a PP-Vox majority and leaves all possibilities open”, in El País, retrieved 06 Aug 2023

Noun

invest (plural invests)

A designated area of disturbed weather that is being monitored for potential tropical cyclone development.

invest meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

invest in Hindi

to invest: निवेश करना niveś karnā, विनिधान करना vinidhān karnā

invest in Tamil

முதலிடு, முதலீடு செய், அதிகாரம், உரிமை முதலியன வழங்கு, ஒன்றில் நேரம், உழைப்பு முதலியன அளித்து ஈடுபடு

invest in Urdu

آراستہ کرنا, گھیرنا, ملبوس کرنا, ملفوف کرنا, عہدے پر بٹھانا, سرمایہ کاری کرنا

More languagesFewer languages

invest in Bengali: লাগানো laganō
invest in Telugu: పెట్టుబడి పెట్టండి, పెట్టుబడులు పెట్టండి, ఇన్వెస్ట్ చేయండి
invest in Malayalam: പണം നിക്ഷേപിക്കുക, പദവിനൽകുക, സ്ഥാപിക്കുക
invest in Kannada: ಹಣ ತೊಡಗಿಸು, ಬಂಡವಾಳ ಹಾಕು, ಹಾಕು, ತೊಡಿಸು
invest in Punjabi: ਨਿਵੇਸ਼ ਕਰੋ
invest in Gujarati: રોકાણ કરો, રોકાણ કરજો
invest in Odia: ନିବେଶ କରନ୍ତୁ
invest in Tagalog: mamuhunan
invest in Arabic: اِسْتَثْمَرَ istaṯmara
invest in Malay: melabur
invest in Indonesian: berinvestasi
invest in Persian: سرمایهگذاری کردن sarmâye-gozâri kardan
invest in Thai: ลงทุน long-tun, ลงทุนลงแรง
invest in Vietnamese: đầu tư

Examples of invest in a sentence

We invested. [CEO Jeff Housenbold: He's learning!] I invest.2025 December 3, NY Times DealBook Summit, 29:21, in MrBeast on Cracking the Attention Economy, spoken by Jimmy Donaldson:
We decided that it was because he trusted the core beliefs of the Conservative Party, and he was invested in their vision of change in the NorthWest of England where he comes from.2015, James Graham, Tory Boyz, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 11:

All 40 example sentences with invest

Synonyms of invest

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of invest

Forms of invest

Verb
third-person singular present	invests
present participle	investing
past participle	invested
past	invested
Noun
plural	invests

Past tense of invest: invested

Origin of invest

Borrowed from Middle French investir or Medieval Latin investire, from Latin investio (“to clothe, cover”), from in- (“in, on”) + vestio (“to clothe, dress”), from vestis (“clothing”); see vest. The sense “to spend money etc.” probably via Italian investire, of the same root.

Clipping of investigate.

Words formed from invest

Words that rhyme with invest

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about invest

What does invest mean?: Invest means to spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in.
What is invest in Hindi?: Invest in Hindi is निवेश करना (niveś karnā), विनिधान करना (vinidhān karnā). See Invest meaning in Hindi.
How do you use invest in a sentence?: We invested. [CEO Jeff Housenbold: He's learning!] I invest.
What part of speech is invest?: Invest can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce invest?: Invest is pronounced /ɪnˈvɛst/ (UK).
What is the past tense of invest?: The past tense of invest is invested.

Words near invest in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-invest.wav, en-us-invest.ogg.

Cite this entry: “invest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/invest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.