ENGAGEMENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does engagement mean? 

• ENGAGEMENT (noun)
  The noun ENGAGEMENT has 7 senses:

1. a hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war

2. a meeting arranged in advance

3. a mutual promise to marry

4. the act of giving someone a job

5. employment for performers or performing groups that lasts for a limited period of time

6. contact by fitting together

7. the act of sharing in the activities of a group

  Familiarity information: ENGAGEMENT used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENGAGEMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

battle; conflict; engagement; fight

Context example:

he lost his romantic ideas about war when he got into a real engagement

Hypernyms ("engagement" is a kind of...):

action; military action (a military engagement)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "engagement"):

Armageddon (any catastrophically destructive battle)

pitched battle (a fierce battle fought in close combat between troops in predetermined positions at a chosen time and place)

naval battle (a pitched battle between naval fleets)

armed combat; combat (an engagement fought between two military forces)

dogfight (an aerial engagement between fighter planes)

assault (close fighting during the culmination of a military attack)

Instance hyponyms:

Battle of Britain (the prolonged bombardment of British cities by the German Luftwaffe during World War II and the aerial combat that accompanied it)

Drogheda (in 1649 the place was captured by Oliver Cromwell, who massacred the Catholic inhabitants)

Holonyms ("engagement" is a part of...):

war; warfare (the waging of armed conflict against an enemy)

Derivation:

engage (carry on (wars, battles, or campaigns))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A meeting arranged in advance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

appointment; date; engagement

Context example:

she asked how to avoid kissing at the end of a date

Hypernyms ("engagement" is a kind of...):

get together; meeting (a small informal social gathering)

Meronyms (members of "engagement"):

date; escort (a participant in a date)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "engagement"):

blind date (a date with a stranger)

double date (a date in which two couples participate)

rendezvous; tryst (a date; usually with a member of the opposite sex)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A mutual promise to marry

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

betrothal; engagement; troth

Hypernyms ("engagement" is a kind of...):

promise (a verbal commitment by one person to another agreeing to do (or not to do) something in the future)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "engagement"):

ringing (the giving of a ring as a token of engagement)

Derivation:

engage (give to in marriage)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The act of giving someone a job

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

employment; engagement

Hypernyms ("engagement" is a kind of...):

action (something done (usually as opposed to something said))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "engagement"):

shape-up (a way of hiring longshoremen by the day; applicants gather around a union boss who selects those to be hired)

booking; reservation (the act of reserving (a place or passage) or engaging the services of (a person or group))

call-back (the recall of an employee after a layoff)

Derivation:

engage (engage or hire for work)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Employment for performers or performing groups that lasts for a limited period of time

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

booking; engagement

Context example:

the play had bookings throughout the summer

Hypernyms ("engagement" is a kind of...):

employment; work (the occupation for which you are paid)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "engagement"):

gig (a booking for musicians)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Contact by fitting together

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

engagement; interlocking; mesh; meshing

Context example:

the meshing of gears

Hypernyms ("engagement" is a kind of...):

contact; impinging; striking (the physical coming together of two or more things)

Derivation:

engage (get caught)

engage (keep engaged)

Sense 7

Meaning:

The act of sharing in the activities of a group

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

engagement; involution; involvement; participation

Context example:

the teacher tried to increase his students' engagement in class activities

Hypernyms ("engagement" is a kind of...):

group action (action taken by a group of people)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "engagement"):

commitment (an engagement by contract involving financial obligation)

intercession; intervention (the act of intervening (as to mediate a dispute, etc.))

group participation (participation by all members of a group)

Antonym:

non-engagement (withdrawing from the activities of a group)

Derivation:

engage (carry out or participate in an activity; be involved in)

 Context examples 

Sometimes it appeared to them as if his silence would be the natural result of the suspected engagement, and at others that it was wholly incompatible with it.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Anne, remembering the preconcerted visits, at all hours, of Mr Elliot, would have expected him, but for his known engagement seven miles off.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

These amazing engagements of mine—what have they been?

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

“My niece walk to a dinner engagement at this time of the year! Will twenty minutes after four suit you?”

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

If you have a strong, harmonious romantic relationship, then this eclipse may trigger a proposal, engagement, or a fairy-tale wedding this month.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The extrinsic pathway is triggered by death receptor engagement, which initiates a signaling cascade mediated by caspase-8 activation.

(Apoptosis Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/KEGG)

This allele, which encodes breast cancer anti-estrogen resistance protein 1, is involved in the mediation of signaling responses to cellular adhesion, cellular migration, growth factor stimulation, cytokine receptor engagement, and bacterial infection.

(BCAR1 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

During TCR engagement with MHC-associated antigen on host cell surfaces and synapse formation, CD3 activity leads to Tyr-phosphorylated CD3 subunits, Tyr phosphorylation of LAT colocalized in lipid rafts, and MAPK activation.

(CD3 Complex, NCI Thesaurus)

Yesterday evening I went to Esher to fulfil this engagement.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I have been in 180 engagements, and I have, as you see, lost my eye and my arm, and been sorely wounded besides.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)