Word family noun entertainer entertainment entertaining adjective entertaining verb entertain adverb entertainingly
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishentertainen‧ter‧tain /ˌentəˈteɪn $ -tər-/ ●●○ verb 1 [intransitive, transitive]PERFORM to amuse or interest people in a way that gives them pleasureentertain somebody with something She entertained the children with stories, songs and drama. A museum should aim to entertain as well as educate.2 [intransitive, transitive]INVITE to invite people to your home for a meal, party etc, or to take your company’s customers somewhere to have a meal, drinks etc Mark usually does the cooking when we entertain. Do you get an allowance for entertaining clients?3 → entertain an idea/hope/thought etc→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
entertain• Being a sociable person, Eva loved entertaining.• It's Scott's personality that really inspires and entertains.• They had a hugely entertaining and morale-building win Sunday, but it was against the Bengals.• As always, Costas is entertaining and well-spoken, and his monologues are undeniably passionate.• Such a call might have wonderfully entertaining aspects.• Donna entertains at home on a regular basis.• This is a easy but impressive dish if you are entertaining at home.• An important part of the job is entertaining business clients.• Mike often gets home late when he's entertaining business clients.• She entertained but fleetingly the notion of ringing the Bishop.• About a fifth of their income is spent on entertaining clients.• What am I doing, entertaining David Kent in my dressing-gown?• I meet a lot of people, but I don't entertain much myself.• Eventually this became independent; now it produces sought after family shows to entertain the elderly and to raise funds for charity.• While no great leap forward stylistically, it has enough chewy bits to surprise listeners and keep them entertained through repeated listenings.• The plot unfolds engagingly, with some very entertaining video segments.entertain somebody with something• He still occasionally entertains his family with his accordion playing.entertaining clients• It is no longer acceptable to pretend to be entertaining clients while overtly pushing your business at them.Origin entertain (1400-1500) Old French entretenir “to hold together, support”, from tenir “to hold” 