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attention; obligation by pledge, promise, or contract; an enterprise embarked in; as, his engagements prevented his acceptance of any office. Religion, which is the chief engagement of our league. Milton.

sengaging or setting free, or the state of being disengaged. It is easy to render this disengagement of caloric and light evident to the senses. Transl. of Lavoisier. A disengagement from earthly trammels. Sir W. Jones.

Prior engagement, obligation, or attachment, as by contract, promise, or affection. My preëngagements to other themes were not unknown to those for whom I was to write. Boyle.

A renewed or repeated engagement.

An assent and engagement by the person on whom a bill of exchange is drawn, to pay it when due according to the terms of the acceptance.

The act by which one power becomes party to engagements already in force between other powers. Kent.

-- To act up to, to equal in action; to fulfill in practice; as, he has acted up to his engagement or his advantages.

An engagement between troops in war, whether on land or water; a battle; a fight; as, a general action, a partial action.

A woman who violates her religious engagements. James iv. 4.

An action or engagement not of sufficient magnitude to be called a battle.

A concurrence in an engagement that something shall be done or omitted; an exchange of promises; mutual understanding, arrangement, or stipulation; a contract.

ion; agreement; the act of fixing by mutual agreement. Hence:: Arrangement for a meeting; engagement; as, they made an appointment to meet at six.

and deny. [Colloq.] -- To back out, To back down, to retreat or withdraw from a promise, engagement, or contest; to recede. [Colloq.] Cleon at first . . . was willing to go; but, finding that he [Nicias] was in earnest, he tried to back out. Jowett (Thucyd. )

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

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.

or To clear for action (Naut.), to remove incumbrances from the decks, and prepare for an engagement. -- To clear the land (Naut.), to gain such a distance from shore as to have sea room, and be out of danger from the land. -- To clear hawse (Naut.), to disentangle the cables when twisted. -- To clear up, to explain…

rs with loopholes, formerly erected on the deck of a vessel to shelter the men in a close engagement with an enemy's boarders; -- called also close quarters. [Obs.]

That part of a war vessel appropriated to the wounded during an engagement.

-- To slip the collar, to get free; to disentangle one's self from difficulty, labor, or engagement. Spenser.