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Webster 1913 Edition


Employment

Em-ploy′ment

,
Noun.
1.
The act of employing or using; also, the state of being employed.
2.
That which engages or occupies; that which consumes time or attention; office or post of business; service;
as, agricultural
employments
; mechanical
employments
; public
employments
; in the
employment
of government.
Syn. – Work; business; occupation; vocation; calling; office; service; commission; trade; profession.

Webster 1828 Edition


Employment

EMPLOY'MENT

,
Noun.
The act of employing or using.
1.
Occupation; business; that which engages the head or hands; as agricultural employments; mechanical employments. Men, whose employment is to make sport and amusement for others, are always despised.
2.
Office; public business or trust; agency or service for another or for the public. The secretary of the treasury has a laborious and responsible employment. He is in the employment of government.

Definition 2024


employment

employment

English

Noun

employment (countable and uncountable, plural employments)

  1. A use, purpose
    • 1873, John Stuart Mill, Autobiography of John Stuart Mill
      This new employment of his time caused no relaxation in his attention to my education.
  2. The act of employing
    The personnel director handled the whole employment procedure
  3. The state of being employed
    • 1853, Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener, in Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories, New York: Penguin Books, 1968; reprint 1995 as Bartleby, ISBN 0 14 60.0012 9, p.3:
      At the period just preceding the advent of Bartleby, I had two persons as copyists in my employment, and a promising lad as an office-boy.
  4. The work or occupation for which one is used, and often paid
  5. An activity to which one devotes time
  6. (economics) The number or percentage of people at work

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