[f. next vb.; cf. It. ingaggio.]
1. a. Engagement, bargain. b. The state of being engaged or entangled; embarrassment, peril (cf. ENGAGE v. 13). Obs.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xix. (Arb.), 241. Nor that it came by purchase or engage.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., XIII. (1626), 256. Nestor … implor’d to his ingage Vlysses helpe.
2. In Sword-exercise: (the vb. in the imperative used subst.: see ENGAGE v. 17).
1833. Regul. Instr. Cavalry, I. 142. Come to the ‘Engage.’
1871. Daily News, 14 Jan., 6/2. Men … sat down cheerfully in their saddles, and brought their swords to the ‘engage.’
