| 释义 |
pre-engage, v.|ˌpriːɪnˈgeɪdʒ|
Also 7 præ-, 7–8 -in-.
[pre- A. 1.]
To engage beforehand.
1. trans. To bind in advance by a pledge or promise; to put under obligation beforehand.
1649C. Walker Hist. Independ. ii. 80 Things may be legally carried..by competent Judges not preingaged. a1678in Hobbes Decam. Wks. 1845 VII. 141 Men have pre-engaged themselves to maintain certain principles. 1715Pope Lett., to Earl Burlington (1735) I. 237 If Mr. Tonson went, he was preingaged to attend him. 1785G. A. Bellamy Apology I. 117 She pressed me to stay dinner, but..I informed her that I was pre-engaged. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. (1882) 286 She is compelled by the silent entreaties of a father..to give her hand, with a heart thus irrecoverably pre-engaged, to Lord Aldobrand.
b. spec. To engage previously to marry, to betroth beforehand. Usually pass. or refl.
1673Lady's Call. ii. i. §5 That they were pre-engag'd to a better amour, espous'd to the spiritual bridegroom. 1749Fielding Tom Jones xvii. viii, If she had pre-engaged herself to any gentleman. 1823Lingard Hist. Eng. VI. 392 The princess was required to swear that she was not pre⁓engaged to any other person.
c. intr. for refl. To pledge oneself, guarantee, or engage beforehand. (With inf. or subord. cl.)
1654Trapp Comm., Ps. ci. Introd. (1657) II. 826 A Psalm of David, wherein he promiseth and pre-ingageth, that whenever hee came to the Kingdome, he will be a singular example. 1683E. Hooker Pref. Pordage's Mystic Div. 84, I wil præengage that the Cloze shal com off sweetly. 1905A. T. Mahan Sea Power I. Pref. 8 Still less may they rightfully pre-engage so to do.
2. trans.
a. To win over or persuade beforehand, to prepossess.
1646J. Gregory Notes & Obs. (1650) 58 Had not Pliny preengaged us to the sense of operation. 1751Earl of Orrery Remarks Swift (1752) 44 They had the effect of an artful preface, and had pre-engaged all readers in his favour. 1865Bushnell Vicar. Sacr. ii. ii. (1868) 153 Something done to preengage the feeling, or raise a favoring prejudice in it.
b. To bespeak or secure for oneself beforehand.
1683A Match iii. in Third Collect. Poems (1689) 29/1 Let trusty Monsieur preingage your ready Votes. 1712E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 134 This being a Breach of Trust to preingage his Vote.
3. To occupy beforehand; to preoccupy.
1656Osborne Adv. Son v. §26 (1896) 124 Do not pre⁓engage Hope or Fear by a tedious expectation. 1659Gentl. Calling vi. §12 All their time is so pre-ingaged and forestalled, that their most important interest is left forlorn. 1712Addison Spect. No. 311 ⁋5 Will..tells us, that he always found her Pre-engaged.
4. To engage in combat with beforehand.
1726G. Shelvocke Voy. round World 46 If the French Captain had not pre-engaged me.
Hence pre-enˈgaged ppl. a.; whence pre-enˈgagedness.
1665Glanvill Scepsis Sci. xiv. 94 [They] owe their credit more to customary and præingaged Assent, then to any rational inducement. 1903A. J. Wilson in Speaker 28 Mar. 597/1 Demands its poverty or pre-engagedness forbids it to gratify. |