engross

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
8
Words With Friends
10
Letters
7
Pronunciation
/ɪnˈɡɹəʊs/(UK)
See all 8 pronunciations
/ɪnˈɡɹəʊs/(UK) · /ɪŋˈɡɹəʊs/(UK) · /ɛnˈɡɹəʊs/(UK) · /ɛŋˈɡɹəʊs/(UK) · /ɪnˈɡɹəʊs/(US) · /ɪŋˈɡɹəʊs/(US) · /ɛnˈɡɹoʊs/(US) · /ɛŋˈɡɹoʊs/(US)

Definition of engross

7 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. (transitive)To write (a document) in large, aesthetic, and legible lettering; to make a finalized copy of.
    “This envelope had the air of an official record of some period long past, when clerks engrossed their stiff and formal chirography on more substantial materials than at present.”
    “laws that may be engrossed upon a finger nail”
    “Wherefore Mr. Micawber […] 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.”
See all 7 definitions

verb

  1. (transitive)To write (a document) in large, aesthetic, and legible lettering; to make a finalized copy of.
    “This envelope had the air of an official record of some period long past, when clerks engrossed their stiff and formal chirography on more substantial materials than at present.”
    “laws that may be engrossed upon a finger nail”
    “Wherefore Mr. Micawber […] 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.”
  2. (obsolete, transitive)To buy up wholesale, especially to buy the whole supply of (a commodity etc.).
  3. (transitive)To monopolize; to concentrate (something) in the single possession of someone, especially unfairly.
    “After which time the Popes of Rome, engroſſing what they pleas'd of Politicall rule into their owne hands, extended their dominion over mens eyes, as they had before over their judgements, burning and prohibiting to be read, what they fanſied not; […]”
    “The Coral Islands are principally visited by the pearl-shell fishermen, who arrive in small schooners, carrying not more than five or six men. For a long while the business was engrossed by Merenhout, the French Consul at Tahiti, but a Dutchman by birth, who, in one year, is said to have sent to France fifty thousand dollars' worth of shells.”
    “Octavian then engrosses for himself proconsular powers for ten years in all the provinces where more than one legion was stationed, giving him effective control of the army”
  4. (transitive)To completely engage the attention of; to involve.
    “She seems to be completely engrossed in that book.”
    “Having made a few vain attempts at engrossing my attention in my book, I was obliged to let myself be carried away by the impetuous torrent of the squire's eloquence.”
  5. (obsolete, transitive)To thicken; to condense.
    “As, when a foggy miſt hath ouercaſt / The face of heuen, and the cleare ayre engroſte, / The world in darkenes dwels, […]”
  6. (obsolete, transitive)To make gross, thick, or large; to thicken; to increase in bulk or quantity.
    “The waues thereof ſo ſlow and ſluggiſh were, / Engroſt with mud, which did them fowle agriſe, / That euery weighty thing they did vpbeare, / Ne ought mote euer ſinck downe to the bottom there.”
    “Not ſleeping to ingroſſe his idle body, / But praying to inrich his watchfull ſoule.”
  7. (obsolete)To amass.
    “Percy is but my factor, good my Lord, / To engroſſe vp glorious deeds on my behalfe.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English engrossen, from Anglo-Norman engrosser (“to gather in large quantities, draft something in final form”); partly from the phrase en gros (“in bulk, in quantity, at wholesale”), from…

See full etymology

From Middle English engrossen, from Anglo-Norman engrosser (“to gather in large quantities, draft something in final form”); partly from the phrase en gros (“in bulk, in quantity, at wholesale”), from en- + gros; and partly from Medieval Latin ingrossō (“thicken, write something large and in bold lettering”, v.), from in- + grossus (“great, big, thick”), from Old High German grōz (“big, thick, coarse”), from Proto-West Germanic *graut, from Proto-Germanic *grautaz (“large, great, thick, coarse grained, unrefined”), from Proto-Indo-European *ghrewə- (“to fell, put down, fall in”). More at in-, gross. By surface analysis, en- + gross.

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