engaged

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈɡeɪd͡ʒd/, /ɛnˈɡeɪd͡ʒd/

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• Rhymes: -eɪdʒd

engaged

1. simple past and past participle of engage

engaged (not comparable)

1. Having agreed to marry a particular person (one's fiancé or fiancée) or each other.

   Synonyms: affianced, betrothed

2. Busy or employed.
3. Greatly interested.
4. (British) (of a telephone) Already involved in a telephone call when a third party calls.

   Synonym: (US) busy

   I tried calling, but she (or her phone) was engaged.

5. (architecture, of a column) attached to a wall or sunk into it halfway
6. (of gears or cogs) in contact and in operation
7. (military) being attacked or attacking
8. (medicine, of a foetus) Having the widest part of its presenting part, usually the head, enter the pelvic brim or inlet.
9. Synonym of engagé (“passionately committed to a cause”)
   • 2002, Maria Lauret, Liberating Literature, page 81:

     Black and white women writers assumed their mantle as engaged writers, as cultural and political critics.

• engage
• engagement