different between exercise vs engage

English

Alternative forms

• exercice (obsolete; noun senses only)

Etymology

From Middle English exercise, from Old French exercise, from Latin exercitium.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??k.s?.sa?z/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??k.s?.sa?z/
• Hyphenation: ex?er?cise

Noun

exercise (countable and uncountable, plural exercises)

1. (countable) Any activity designed to develop or hone a skill or ability.
   • an exercise of the eyes and memory

2. (countable, uncountable) Activity intended to improve physical, or sometimes mental, strength and fitness.

   • This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. […] He was smooth-faced, and his fresh skin and well-developed figure bespoke the man in good physical condition through active exercise, yet well content with the world's apportionment.
3. A setting in action or practicing; employment in the proper mode of activity; exertion; application; use.
   • December 8, 1801, Thomas Jefferson, first annual message

     exercise of the important function confided by the constitution to the legislature

   • O we will walk this world, / Yoked in all exercise of noble end.

4. The performance of an office, ceremony, or duty.

   I assisted the ailing vicar in the exercise of his parish duties.

   • Lewis […] refused even those of the church of England […] the public exercise of their religion.
5. (obsolete) That which gives practice; a trial; a test.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

exercise (third-person singular simple present exercises, present participle exercising, simple past and past participle exercised)

1. To exert for the sake of training or improvement; to practice in order to develop.

2. (intransitive) To perform physical activity for health or training.

3. (transitive) To use (a right, an option, etc.); to put into practice.
4. (now often in passive) To occupy the attention and effort of; to task; to tax, especially in a painful or vexatious manner; harass; to vex; to worry or make anxious.
5. (obsolete) To set in action; to cause to act, move, or make exertion; to give employment to.

Translations

See also

• train
• work out

Further reading

• exercise in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• exercise in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Alternative forms

• ingage (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English engagen, from Old French engagier (“to pledge, engage”), from Frankish *anwadj?n (“to pledge”), from Proto-Germanic *an-, *andi- + Proto-Germanic *wadj?n? (“to pledge, secure”), from Proto-Germanic *wadj? (“pledge, guarantee”), from Proto-Indo-European *wed?- (“to pledge, redeem a pledge; guarantee, bail”), equivalent to en- +? gage. Cognate with Old English anwedd (“pledge, security”), Old English weddian (“to engage, covenant, undertake”), German wetten (“to bet, wager”), Icelandic veðja (“to wager”). More at wed.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n??e?d?/, /?n??e?d?/
• Rhymes: -e?d?

Verb

engage (third-person singular simple present engages, present participle engaging, simple past and past participle engaged)

1. (heading, transitive) To interact socially.
   1. To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied.
   2. To draw into conversation.

      • the difficult task of engaging him in conversation

   3. To attract, to please; (archaic) to fascinate or win over (someone).

      • Good nature engages everybody to him.

2. (heading) To interact antagonistically.
   1. (transitive) To enter into conflict with (an enemy).
      • 1698-1699, Edmund Ludlow, Memoirs

        a favourable opportunity of engaging the enemy

   2. (intransitive) To enter into battle.
3. (heading) To interact contractually.
   1. (transitive) To arrange to employ or use (a worker, a space, etc.).
   2. (intransitive) To guarantee or promise (to do something).
   3. (transitive) To bind through legal or moral obligation (to do something, especially to marry) (usually in passive).

   4. (obsolete, transitive) To pledge, pawn (one's property); to put (something) at risk or on the line; to mortgage (houses, land).
      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vii:

        Thou that doest liue in later times, must wage / Thy workes for wealth, and life for gold engage.

4. (heading) To interact mechanically.
   1. To mesh or interlock (of machinery, especially a clutch).
   2. (engineering, transitive) To come into gear with.

      The teeth of one cogwheel engage those of another.

5. (intransitive) To enter into (an activity), to participate (construed with in).

   • “ […] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic? […]”

6. (transitive, obsolete) To entangle.

Antonyms

• (to cause to mesh or interlock): disengage

Derived terms

• engagement
• disengage
• disengagement

Translations

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.?a?/

Verb

engage

1. first-person singular present indicative of engager
2. third-person singular present indicative of engager
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of engager
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of engager
5. second-person singular imperative of engager

Anagrams

• gagnée