invest

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.

• intransitive verb To make an investment; ; -- usually followed by in.
• 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.

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

• noun meteorology An unnamed tropical weather pattern "to investigate" for development into a significant (named) system.
• 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).

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