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To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition. [Obs.] In strifeful terms with him to balk. Spenser.

general action, fight, or encounter, in which all the divisions of an army are or may be engaged; an engagement; a combat.

A pin which plays in and out of holes made to receive it, and which thus serves to engage or disengage parts of the machinery. Bayonet clutch. See Clutch. -- Bayonet joint, a form of coupling similar to that by which a bayonet is fixed on the barrel of a musket. Knight.

Having horns, or antlers. Beamy stags in toils engage. Dryden.

A neighborly gathering of people who engage in united labor for the benefit of an individual or family; as, a quilting bee; a husking bee; a raising bee. [U. S.] The cellar . . . was dug by a bee in a single day. S. G. Goodrich.

A nation or state recognized as carrying on war; a person engaged in warfare.

To speak or arrange for beforehand; to order or engage against a future time; as, to bespeak goods, a right, or a favor. Concluding, naturally, that to gratify his avarice was to bespeak his favor. Sir W. Scott.

To contract to any one for a marriage; to engage or promise in order to marriage; to affiance; -- used esp. of a woman. He, in the first flower of my freshest age, Betrothed me unto the only heir. Spenser. Ay, and we are betrothed. Shak.

The act of betrothing, or the fact of being betrothed; a mutual promise, engagement, or contract for a future marriage between the persons betrothed; betrothment; affiance. "The feast of betrothal." Longfellow.

To frustrate or disappoint; to deceive or defraud, by nonfulfillment of engagement; to leave in the lurch; to give the slip to; as, to bilk a creditor. Thackeray.

a single vigorous act. "They lose a province at a blow." Dryden. -- To come to blows, to engage in combat; to fight; -- said of individuals, armies, and nations.

A noisy, rapid, shuffling dance engaged in competitively by a number of persons or pairs in succession, as among the colored people of the Southern United States, and so called, perhaps, because the exercise is continued until most of those who take part in it break down.

One who excites broils; one who engages in or promotes noisy quarrels. What doth he but turn broiler, . . . make new libels against the church Hammond.

The whole body of persons engaged in the same business, -- especially those of the same profession; as, the legal or medical brotherhood.

. Latimer. In single combat thou shalt buckle with me. Shak. To buckle to, to bend to; to engage with zeal. To make our sturdy humor buckle thereto. Barrow. Before buckling to my winter's work. J. D. Forbes.

That which busies one, or that which engages the time, attention, or labor of any one, as his principal concern or interest, whether for a longer or shorter time; constant employment; regular occupation; as, the business of life; business before pleasure. Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business Luke ii. 4…

Engaged in some business; hard at work (either habitually or only for the time being); occupied with serious affairs; not idle nor at leisure; as, a busy merchant. Sir, my mistress sends you word THat she is busy, and she can not come. Shak.

The persons, collectively, engaged in any particular professions or employment. To impose celibacy on wholy callings. Hammond.

To search thoroughly; to engage in solicitation by traversing a district; as, to canvass for subscriptions or for votes; to canvass for a book, a publisher, or in behalf of a charity; -- commonly followed by for.

To drink deeply or freely in compliment; to take in a carousal; to engage in drunken revels. He had been aboard, carousing to his mates. Shak.