Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Employ
Em-ploy′
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Employed
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Employing
.] 1.
To inclose; to infold.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.
2.
To use; to have in service; to cause to be engaged in doing something; – often followed by in, about, on, or upon, and sometimes by to; as:
(a)
To make use of, as an instrument, a means, a material, etc., for a specific purpose; to apply; as, to
employ
the pen in writing, bricks in building, words and phrases in speaking; to employ
the mind; to employ
one’s energies.(b)
To occupy; as, to employ time in study.
(c)
To have or keep at work; to give employment or occupation to; to intrust with some duty or behest;
as, to
. employ
a hundred workmen; to employ
an envoyJonathan . . . and Jahaziah . . . were
employed
about this matter. Ezra x. 15.
Thy vineyard must
To turn the glebe.
employ
the sturdy steerTo turn the glebe.
Dryden.
Syn. – To use; busy; apply; exercise; occupy; engross; engage. See
Use
. Em-ploy′
,Noun.
[Cf. F.
emploi
.] That which engages or occupies a person; fixed or regular service or business; employment.
The whole
employ
of body and of mind. Pope.
In one's employ
, in one's service.
Webster 1828 Edition
Employ
EMPLOY'
,Verb.
T.
1.
To occupy the time, attention and labor of; to keep busy, or at work; to use. We employ our hands in labor; we employ our heads or faculties in study or thought; the attention is employed, when the mind is fixed or occupied upon an object; we employ time, when we devote it to an object. A portion of time should be daily employed in reading the scriptures, meditation and prayer; a great portion of life is employed to little profit or to very bad purposes.2.
To use as an instrument or means. We employ pens in writing, and arithmetic in keeping accounts. We employ medicines in curing diseases.3.
To use as materials in forming any thing. We employ timber, stones or bricks, in building; we employ wool, linen and cotton, in making cloth.4.
To engage in one's service; to use as an agent or substitute in transacting business; to commission and entrust with the management of one's affairs. The president employed an envoy to negotiate a treaty. Kings and States employ embassadors at foreign courts.5.
To occupy; to use; to apply or devote to an object; to pass in business; as, to employ time; to employ an hour, a day or a week; to employ one's life.To employ one's self, is to apply or devote one's time and attention; to busy one's self.
Definition 2024
employ
employ
English
Alternative forms
- imploy (obsolete)
Noun
employ (plural employs)
- The state of being an employee; employment.
- The school district has six thousand teachers in its employ.
Synonyms
Verb
employ (third-person singular simple present employs, present participle employing, simple past and past participle employed)
- To hire (somebody for work or a job).
- Yesterday our local garage employed a new mechanic.
- 1668 July 3rd, James Dalrymple, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Houſtoun” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 547
- Andrew Houſtoun and Adam Muſhet, being Tackſmen of the Excize, did Imploy Thomas Rue to be their Collector, and gave him a Sallary of 30. pound Sterling for a year.
- 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
- Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.
- To use (somebody for a job, or something for a task).
- The burglar employed a jemmy to get in.
- 1598, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act 1, Scene iii:
- Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you / against the general enemy Ottoman.
- Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
- This is a day in which the thoughts […] ought to be employed on serious subjects.
- 2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200:
- Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads.
- 2013 June 7, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 18:
- The dispatches […] also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies. Having lectured the Arab world about democracy for years, its collusion in suppressing freedom was undeniable as protesters were met by weaponry and tear gas made in the west, employed by a military trained by westerners.
- To make busy.
- 1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act 2, Scene viii:
- Let it not enter in your mind of love: / Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts / to courtship and such fair ostents of love / as shall conveniently become you there
- 1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act 2, Scene viii:
Derived terms
Translations
to give someone work
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to put into use
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