Engage

[en-geyj] /ɛnˈgeɪdʒ/

verb (used with object), engaged, engaging.
1.
to occupy the attention or efforts of (a person or persons):
He engaged her in conversation.
2.
to secure for aid, employment, use, etc.; hire:
to engage a worker; to engage a room.
3.
to attract and hold fast:
The novel engaged her attention and interest.
4.
to attract or please:
His good nature engages everyone.
5.
to bind, as by pledge, promise, contract, or oath; make liable:
He engaged himself to repay his debt within a month.
6.
to betroth (usually used in the passive):
They were engaged last week.
7.
to bring (troops) into conflict; enter into conflict with:
Our army engaged the enemy.
8.
Mechanics. to cause (gears or the like) to become interlocked; interlock with.
9.
to attach or secure.
10.
Obsolete. to entangle or involve.
verb (used without object), engaged, engaging.
11.
to occupy oneself; become involved:
to engage in business or politics.
12.
to take employment:
She engaged in her mother’s business.
13.
to pledge one’s word; assume an obligation:
I was unwilling to engage on such terms.
14.
to cross weapons; enter into conflict:
The armies engaged early in the morning.
15.
Mechanics. (of gears or the like) to interlock.
[French ahn-ga-zhey] /French ɑ̃ gaˈʒeɪ/
adjective
1.
choosing to involve oneself in or commit oneself to something:
Some of the political activists grew less engagé as the years passed.
/ɪnˈɡeɪdʒ/
verb (mainly transitive)
1.
to secure the services of; employ
2.
to secure for use; reserve: engage a room
3.
to involve (a person or his attention) intensely; engross; occupy
4.
to attract (the affection) of (a person): her innocence engaged him
5.
to draw (somebody) into conversation
6.
(intransitive) to take part; participate: he engages in many sports
7.
to promise (to do something)
8.
(also intransitive) (military) to begin an action with (an enemy)
9.
to bring (a mechanism) into operation: he engaged the clutch
10.
(also intransitive) to undergo or cause to undergo interlocking, as of the components of a driving mechanism, such as a gear train
11.
(machinery) to locate (a locking device) in its operative position or to advance (a tool) into a workpiece to commence cutting
/ɑ̃ɡaʒe/
adjective
1.
(of a writer or artist, esp a man) morally or politically committed to some ideology
v.

early 15c., “to pledge,” from Middle French engagier, from Old French en gage “under pledge,” from en “make” + gage “pledge,” through Frankish from Proto-Germanic *wadiare “pledge” (see wed).

It shows the common evolution of Germanic -w- to French -g-; cf. Guillaume from Wilhelm). Meaning “attract the attention of” is from 1640s; that of “employ” is from 1640s, from notion of “binding as by a pledge.” Specific sense of “promise to marry” is 1610s (implied in engaged).
spelling
Do you mean Nokia N-Gage?
(2005-01-18)