Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To commit (money or capital) in order to gain a financial return.
  • intransitive verb To spend or devote for future advantage or benefit.
  • intransitive verb To devote morally or psychologically, as to a purpose; commit.
  • intransitive verb To endow with authority or power.
  • intransitive verb To install in office with ceremony.
  • intransitive verb To provide with an enveloping or pervasive quality.
  • intransitive verb To clothe; adorn.
  • intransitive verb To cover completely; envelop.
  • intransitive verb To surround with troops or ships; besiege.
  • intransitive verb To make investments or an investment.
  • intransitive verb To purchase with the expectation of benefit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cover with or as if with a garment or vesture; clothe; indue: followed by with, and sometimes in, before the thing covering: opposed to divest.
  • To clothe or attire with; put on.
  • To clothe or indue, as with office or authority; hence, to accredit with some quality or attribute; indue by attribution: followed by with: as, to invest a narrative with the charm of romance; to invest a friend with every virtue.
  • In law, to put in possession of something to be held as a matter of right; instate or install: as, to invest a man with rank, dignity, etc.
  • To confer; give; vest.
  • To surround; hem in or about; especially, to surround with hostile intent, or in such a way as to prevent approach or escape; surround with troops, military works, or other barriers; beleaguer.
  • To employ for some profitable use; convert into some other form of wealth, usually of a more or less permanent nature, as in the purchase of property or shares, or in loans secured by mortgage, etc.: said of money or capital: followed by in: as, to invest one's means in lands or houses, or in bank-stock, government bonds, etc.; to invest large sums in books.
  • To make an investment: as, to invest in railway shares.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To put garments on; to clothe; to dress; to array; -- opposed to divest. Usually followed by with, sometimes by in.
  • transitive verb obsolete To put on.
  • transitive verb To clothe, as with office or authority; to place in possession of rank, dignity, or estate; to endow; to adorn; to grace; to bedeck
  • transitive verb To surround, accompany, or attend.
  • transitive verb rare To confer; to give.
  • transitive verb (Mil.) To inclose; to surround or hem in with troops, so as to intercept reinforcements of men and provisions and prevent escape; to lay siege to.
  • transitive verb To lay out (money or capital) in business with the view of obtaining an income or profit.
  • transitive verb To expend (time, money, or other resources) with a view to obtaining some benefit of value in excess of that expended, or to achieve a useful pupose.
  • intransitive verb To make an investment; ; -- usually followed by in.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb dated To clothe or wrap (with garments).
  • verb To envelop, wrap, cover.
  • verb To commit money or capital in the hope of financial gain.
  • verb To spend money, time, or energy into something, especially for some benefit or purpose.
  • verb To ceremonially install someone in some office.
  • verb To formally give someone some power or authority.
  • verb To lay siege to.
  • verb intransitive : To make investments.
  • verb metallurgy To prepare for lost wax casting by creating an investment mold (a mixture of a silica sand and plaster).
  • noun meteorology An unnamed tropical weather pattern "to investigate" for development into a significant (named) system.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb furnish with power or authority; of kings or emperors
  • verb give qualities or abilities to
  • verb place ceremoniously or formally in an office or position
  • verb provide with power and authority
  • verb make an investment

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Italian investire and from French investir, both from Latin investīre, to clothe, surround : in-, in; see in– + vestīre, to clothe (from vestis, clothes; see wes- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French investir, from Latin investio ("to clothe, cover"), from in- ("in, on") + vestio ("to clothe, dress"), from vestis ("clothing"); see vest.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From investigate, by shortening

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Examples

  • We went from trickle-down economics to what I call invest and growth -- reduce the deficit, but invest more in our people and technology and in the progress of people in the future, and open the world to trade in American products and services.

    Remarks By President To Us Conference Of Mayors ITY National Archives 1997

  • #3 - If you have the means, the best time to invest is when times are tough.

    Accountability 2010

  • On the one hand no responsibilities when renting but sure hate in invest time and money when at anytime a landlord here for any reason can up and take that home back.

    Page 3 2010

  • On the one hand no responsibilities when renting but sure hate in invest time and money when at anytime a landlord here for any reason can up and take that home back.

    Page 3 2010

  • On the one hand no responsibilities when renting but sure hate in invest time and money when at anytime a landlord here for any reason can up and take that home back.

    Page 3 2010

  • #3 - If you have the means, the best time to invest is when times are tough.

    8 posts from July 2009 2009

  • #3 - If you have the means, the best time to invest is when times are tough.

    risk shmisk 2009

  • #3 - If you have the means, the best time to invest is when times are tough.

    Transparency 2010

  • #3 - If you have the means, the best time to invest is when times are tough.

    risk shmisk 2009

  • #3 - If you have the means, the best time to invest is when times are tough.

    Technology 2010

Comments

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  • Yard House employee-owners are invested in the future

    This is why when we are invested in the outcome, we get so anxious . . .

    Hume offered no evidence that any Democrats are "invested in our losing" or "rooting for us to lose" in Iraq.

    College men and women are invested in the social and are largely opposed to academic and professorial culture . . .

    —Examples from Google of a meaning new to me, and not in the OED. Another dictionary, however, defines it as 'devote morally or psychologically, as to a purpose; commit', giving as example: 'Men of our generation are invested in what they do, women in what we are.'

    August 11, 2008