| / English Dictionary |
ENGROSSED
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Giving or marked by complete attention to
Example:
wrapped in thought
Synonyms:
absorbed; captive; engrossed; enwrapped; intent; wrapped
Classified under:
Similar:
attentive ((often followed by 'to') giving care or attention)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Written formally in a large clear script, as a deed or other legal document
Classified under:
Similar:
written (set down in writing in any of various ways)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Past simple / past participle of the verb engross
Context examples:
Wherefore Mr. Micawber (who was a thoroughly good-natured man, and as active a creature about everything but his own affairs as ever existed, and never so happy as when he was busy about something that could never be of any profit to him) set to work at the petition, invented it, engrossed it on an immense sheet of paper, spread it out on a table, and appointed a time for all the club, and all within the walls if they chose, to come up to his room and sign it.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
It was engrossed by the extraordinary silence of her sister and Willoughby on the subject, which they must know to be peculiarly interesting to them all.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
I never saw a more promising inclination; he was growing quite inattentive to other people, and wholly engrossed by her.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Fanny's thoughts were now all engrossed by the two who had left her so long ago, and getting quite impatient, she resolved to go in search of them.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Materials were at hand, on a separate table; he went to it, and nearly turning his back to them all, was engrossed by writing.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
This point was just arranged, when a visitor arrived to tear Emma's thoughts a little from the one subject which had engrossed them, sleeping or waking, the last twenty-four hours—Mrs. Weston, who had been calling on her daughter-in-law elect, and took Hartfield in her way home, almost as much in duty to Emma as in pleasure to herself, to relate all the particulars of so interesting an interview.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Catherine, by whom this meeting was wholly unexpected, received her brother with the liveliest pleasure; and he, being of a very amiable disposition, and sincerely attached to her, gave every proof on his side of equal satisfaction, which he could have leisure to do, while the bright eyes of Miss Thorpe were incessantly challenging his notice; and to her his devoirs were speedily paid, with a mixture of joy and embarrassment which might have informed Catherine, had she been more expert in the development of other people's feelings, and less simply engrossed by her own, that her brother thought her friend quite as pretty as she could do herself.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
On this occasion he seemed to think he was introduced expressly to keep Traddles at bay; and he barked at my old friend, and made short runs at his plate, with such undaunted pertinacity, that he may be said to have engrossed the conversation.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
She feared that under this persuasion she had been unjust, inattentive, nay, almost unkind, to her Elinor;—that Marianne's affliction, because more acknowledged, more immediately before her, had too much engrossed her tenderness, and led her away to forget that in Elinor she might have a daughter suffering almost as much, certainly with less self-provocation, and greater fortitude.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Her ladyship received them civilly, but it was plain that their company was by no means so acceptable as when she could get nobody else; and she was, in fact, almost engrossed by her nephews, speaking to them, especially to Darcy, much more than to any other person in the room.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
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