promise

promise vb Promise, engage, pledge, plight, covenant, contract are comparable when they mean to give one's word that one will act in a specified way (as by doing, making, giving, or accepting) in respect to something stipulated.

Promise implies a giving assurance either orally or in writing but it suggests no further grounds for expectation of the fulfillment of what is promised

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he is a man of his word, what he promises he performs

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he promised that he would pay his bill

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promised to do painting, trimming and repairing with all possible expertness— Riker

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promised to reexamine all loyalty cases cleared by the Democrats— Ginzburg

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she has promised herself a trip to Bermuda

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Engage implies a more binding agreement or more definite commitment than promise. Typically it is used in formal or consequential situations, sometimes specifically implying an agreement to marry and sometimes an agreement to accept as an employee. It ordinarily implies a promise regarded as binding and to be relied on and especially one concerning conduct over a period of time

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to Him whose truth and faithfulness engage the waiting soul to bless— Walford

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study material about Gen. Grant, whose biog- raphy he had engaged to prepare— Caffey

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the United States . .. engaged to exclude peddlers from their country— Foreman

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{

an engaged couple

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Pledge (compare PLEDGE) I, aside from uses in connection with drives and charities

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pledged a dollar a week to the church building fund

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may imply the giving of a promise by some act or words that suggest the giving of a solemn assurance or the provision of a formal guarantee

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pledged their loyalty to their sovereign

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pledge themselves to maintain and uphold the right of the master— Taney

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Austria swarmed with excited and angry men pledged to destroy the Church— Belloc

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Plight implies a solemn promising

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if for America it is too violent a wrench to plight its fate with Europe's, even ... to prevent war— Peffer

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and persists chiefly in a few stereotyped phrases such as "plight one's troth."

Covenant implies at least two parties to the promise, each making a solemn agreement with the other

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a man cannot grant anything to his wife, or enter into convenant with her: for . . . to covenant with her, would be only to covenant with himself— Blackstone

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covenanted to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parliament in Ireland— Rose Macaulay

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Contract (see also CONTRACT vb 3, INCUR) implies the entry into a solemn and usually legally binding agreement (see CONTRACT n)

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contract for a large loan

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the company has contracted to supply the schools of the state with textbooks

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the good wife realizes that in becoming a wife she contracts to forget self and put her husband's happiness above her own— D. F. Miller

}

Analogous words: agree, consent, *assent, accede: assure, Cnsure, insure