invest Meaning, Definition & Usage

verb make an investment
put; place; commit.
- Put money into bonds
verb give qualities or abilities to
endue; gift; empower; indue; endow.
verb furnish with power or authority; of kings or emperors
adorn; clothe.
verb provide with power and authority
vest; enthrone.
- They vested the council with special rights
verb place ceremoniously or formally in an office or position
seat; induct.
- there was a ceremony to induct the president of the Academy

L. investire, investitum; pref. in- in + vestire to clothe, fr. vestis clothing: cf. F. investir. See Vest.

imperfect & past participle Invested; present participle & verbal noun Investing

To put garments on; to clothe; to dress; to array; -- opposed to divest. Usually followed by with, sometimes by in; as, to invest one with a robe.
To put on. Obs.
Can not find one this girdle to invest. Spenser.
To clothe, as with office or authority; to place in possession of rank, dignity, or estate; to endow; to adorn; to grace; to bedeck; as, to invest with honor or glory; to invest with an estate.
I do invest you jointly with my power. Shak.
To surround, accompany, or attend.
Awe such as must always invest the spectacle of the guilt. Hawthorne.
To confer; to give. R.
It investeth a right of government. Bacon.
(Mil.) To inclose; to surround of hem in with troops, so as to intercept succors of men and provisions and prevent escape; to lay siege to; as, to invest a town.
To lay out (money or capital) in business with the iew of obtaining an income or profit; as, to invest money in bank stock.