entertained

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of entertain.

   The magician entertained a packed theater for nearly two hours.

   Visiting diplomats were entertained lavishly at the embassy.

   Note

   A regular -ed form gives one spelling for both the past tense and the participle. It carries every meaning of entertain, not just amusement. A host entertained guests, a skeptic entertained doubts, and a committee has entertained a proposal. In a sentence like the possibility was never entertained, the sense is consideration and has nothing to do with fun. Look at the object before reading it as the "amused" adjective.

   She never seriously entertained the offer.

   The idea was entertained briefly and then dropped.

2. 2
   adjective

   Pleasantly amused; enjoying or having enjoyed an entertaining diversion or pastime.

   The audience seemed thoroughly entertained throughout the performance.

   She was entertained by the witty banter that filled the dinner table.

   Similaramused, diverted, delighted, engaged, captivated

   Oppositebored, uninterested

   Note

   This is the participle turned true adjective, and it shows in how it grades: people can be very entertained, far more entertained, or the most entertained in the world. Those intensifiers and the forms more entertained and most entertained describe a state of enjoyment. They do not report that someone did the entertaining, as the past participle does. When a by-phrase follows (more entertained by films), the two readings come close. A word like very marks the adjective.

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