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engrossed

US/ɛnˈɡɹoʊst/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,460 of 15,258neutral

Engrossed means completely taken up by what you are doing. Engrossed in a book, utterly engrossed, engrossed in conversation.

It always takes in. The word has a second life in law, where to engross a document is to prepare the final formal copy, and that is the older sense — from a French phrase meaning in large writing. The everyday sense came from being wholly occupied.

Definitions of engrossed

  1. 1adjectiveengrossedCompletely taken up by what you are doing.C1

    “He was so engrossed in his book that he missed his stop.”

engrossed is a state of attention.

Practised in Thinking & Memory

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engrossed in the wild

  • Alternatively, they are considered to be so engrossed in their field of study that they forget their surroundings.

    Absent-minded professor

  • The phrase is also commonly used in English to describe people who are so engrossed in their own world that they fail to keep track of their surroundings.

    Absent-minded professor

  • The Joint Committee on Enrolled Bills was established on July 27, 1789, with the responsibility for the enrollment of engrossed bills.

    United States House Committee on Enrolled Bills

  • While engrossed in a book about Saint Joan, she slips into a series of dreams in which the real persons in her life take on other identities.

    The Visions of Simone Machard

  • Saint Jerome is shown sitting behind his desk, engrossed in work.

    Saint Jerome in His Study (Dürer)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.