engaging

Pluralengagings

1. 1
   adjective

   Holding the attention or interest; absorbing and enjoyable to read, watch, or listen to.

   The documentary stayed engaging throughout, weaving personal stories into hard data.

   Few speakers are as engaging as she is when explaining complicated ideas.

   Similarabsorbing, engrossing, compelling, captivating, gripping

   Oppositeboring, dull, tedious, uninteresting

   Note

   A word for what holds the mind: a book, a talk, a documentary. It pairs naturally with nouns of experience, as in an engaging read or an engaging speaker, and it grades freely: more engaging, most engaging. Keep it apart from the "charming" meaning, which praises a person's manner. An engaging read absorbs you; an engaging personality wins you over.

2. 2
   adjective

   Charming and attractive, especially in one's manner or behavior.

   The host's engaging manner made even nervous guests feel at home.

   There was something deeply engaging about his easy laugh and open expression.

   Similarcharming, appealing, winning, attractive, likable

   Oppositeunappealing, off-putting, unattractive, repellent

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of engage.

   The destroyer began engaging hostile vessels shortly after midnight.

   Engaging local volunteers was the key to finishing the project on time.

   Note

   One spelling does two grammatical jobs here. As a participle it builds the progressive (they were engaging the enemy). As a gerund it acts as a noun while keeping its object (engaging volunteers was the key). Whether an object follows depends on the meaning: hiring someone or fighting an enemy takes one, while entering battle stands alone. When it names a quality rather than an action, it has become the adjective "interesting".

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of taking part in or connecting with something; involvement.

   The smooth engaging of the clutch marks a well-tuned machine.

   His full engaging with the community won him many supporters.

   Similarinvolvement, participation

   Oppositedisengagement

   Note

   A verbal noun that can be counted as well as used in the mass. Alongside the smooth engaging of a clutch there is a plural, engagings, which Andrew Kennedy's Inside the mind of Andrew (2016) uses when it writes of someone's "criminal engagings." Engagement is its close equivalent. The -ing noun keeps the feel of an action under way rather than a settled state.

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