engage (one) in (something)

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engage (one) in (something)

1. To do some task or activity. In this usage, "engage in" is usually a set phrase. Dad is engaged in fixing the car, so he can't talk right now.
2. To include or involve one in something. Phil is always making snide comments, but I refuse to let him engage me in an argument.
3. To occupy one with a task or activity. See if you can engage the kids in a game this afternoon so that I can get some work done.
See also: engage

engage someone or something in something

 
1. . to make someone or a group busy doing something. She knew how to engage the boys in useful activity. The den mother engaged the scouts in a woodworking project.
2. to draw someone or something into something. The enemy sought to engage our troops in battle but failed. I tried to engage Gerald in conversation.
See also: engage

engage in

v.
1. To participate in some activity: The soldiers engaged in combat. The law students engaged in a mock trial.
2. To involve or draw someone or something into some activity: I engaged the new student in conversation. I was engaged in deep thought when the fire alarm went off.
See also: engage
References in periodicals archive ?
They offered valuable expertise with regard to the many considerations each party must make when engaging in this type of relationship.
Non-profits bring new opportunity to redevelopment arena
For all of them, engaging in struggle is enlivening.
Staying engaged
where students were doing everything from engaging in kiss-ins to taking leadership roles on school newspapers and in student government.
Gay activism and campus life: October 9, 1990
Under the injunction issued by Federal Judge Richard Paez, the ADL is permanently enjoined from engaging in any further illegal spying against Arab-American and other civil rights groups.
239) It also broadens the grounds of inadmissibility to include persons who endorse, (240) 'use their prominence to endorse, (241) or have been 'associated with' terrorist activity, as well as spouses and children of persons engaging in terrorism.
The law creates a presumption that the government's designation of someone as engaging in 'terrorist activity' is provable, and places a very high burden on the non-citizen for rebuffing the presumption (and in some circumstances, the burden will be impossible to meet).
In contrast, the new provision will deny visas to broad classes of aliens who w ill now be ineligible for adjustment of status, release pending deportation, asylum and withholding of removal, with no more than an urebutted presumption on the part of the government that they were associated with someone engaging in terrorist activity.
AEDPA [section] 302 established the authority of the Secretary of State to designate a "foreign terrorist organization," which is a) a foreign organization; b) engaging in terrorist activity (as defined under 8 USC 1182(a)(3)(B); c) that threatens the security of the US or its citizens.
The aftermath of September 11, 2001: The targeting of Arabs and Muslims in America
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