Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Entertain

En′ter·tain′ (ĕn′tẽr·tān′), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Entertained; p. pr. & vb. n. Entertaining.] [F. entretenir; entre between (L. inter) + tenir to hold, L. tenere. See Tenable.] 1. To be at the charges of; to take or keep in one's service; to maintain; to support; to harbor; to keep.

You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred. Shak.

2. To give hospitable reception and maintenance to; to receive at one's board, or into one's house; to receive as a guest.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained unawares. Heb. xiii. 2.

3. To engage the attention of agreeably; to amuse with that which makes the time pass pleasantly; to divert; as, to entertain friends with conversation, etc.

The weary time she can not entertain. Shak.

4. To give reception to; to receive, in general; to receive and take into consideration; to admit, treat, or make use of; as, to entertain a proposal.

I am not here going to entertain so large a theme as the philosophy of Locke. De Quincey.

A rumor gained ground, — and, however absurd, was entertained by some very sensible people. Hawthorne.

5. To meet or encounter, as an enemy. [Obs.] Shak.

6. To keep, hold, or maintain in the mind with favor; to keep in the mind; to harbor; to cherish; as, to entertain sentiments.

7. To lead on; to bring along; to introduce. [Obs.]

To baptize all nations, and entertain them into the services institutions of the holy Jesus. Jer. Taylor.

Syn. — To amuse; divert; maintain. See Amuse.

En′ter·tain′ (ĕn′tẽr·tān′), v. i. To receive, or provide entertainment for, guests; as, he entertains generously.

En′ter·tain′, n. [Cf. F. entretien, fr. entretenir.] Entertainment. [Obs.] Spenser.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.