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
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

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
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

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
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
See also:
References in periodicals archive ?
In comparison, he said 'Imran Niazi' did nothing during the last five years except 'engaging in falsehood, leveling allegations and mendacity'.
First kidney transplant at PKLI on 28th: Shahbaz
Why are you still engaging in politics of protest?'
Ahsan says India is an 'irresponsible nuclear power'
Medical neglect is rampant, along with violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention.The Palestinian Prisoners Society reported today that the Israeli prison administration in Hadarim Prison has increased restrictions on Palestinian political prisoners and is engaging in more widespread medical neglect.
Medical neglect on the rise in Hadarim Prison, nine more arrests
"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
We must look for a balance between reading about our faith and engaging in actions that proclaim it.
Don't read all about it! Spiritual reading and education is big business these days. But could reading that one more book about the faith perhaps keep us from actually living it?
The Advocate profiled 16 schools, a widely varied group including Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, Iowa, and Stafford University in Stanford, Calif., 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.
(238) It adds a definition of terrorist organization to include any organization so designated by the Secretary of State after certain findings, which include a finding that the organization 'provides material support to further terrorist activity.' (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 critical intent requirement of prior law has been eliminated, and a non-citizen can now be found "engaging in terrorist activity" even if he does not intend to further the terrorist activity, or did not know an organization was a terrorist organization.
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
* ERISA PROHIBITS A FIDUCIARY FROM ENGAGING in certain transactions with a party in interest.
ERISA liability for CPAs
Instead of engaging in what Keats called an "irritable reaching after fact or reason," Stepto pursues his deepest connection with his mother on the frequencies of music.
Blue as the Lake: A Personal Geography
loosely calls Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh "terrorists," but it does not actually charge them with engaging in terrorist activities.
It's alive and well at the I.N.S.; guilt by association
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