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employ

verb
/ɪmˈplɔɪ/

Etymology

From late Middle English emploien, imploien, emplien (“to apply to a specific purpose”), from Anglo-Norman emploier, Old French emploiier (“to entangle, fabricate, to make use of”), ultimately from Latin implicāre (“to infold, entangle, involve, engage”), from in- (“in”) + plicāre (“to fold”). Doublet of imply and implicate.

  1. derived from implicō
  2. derived from emploiier
  3. derived from emploier
  4. inherited from emploien

Definitions

  1. To retain (someone) as an employee.

    • Our company employs hundreds of people.
    • 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.
    • 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.

  2. To provide (someone) with a new job

    To provide (someone) with a new job; to hire.

    • Yesterday our local garage employed a new mechanic.
    • The management, who were close personal friends, had just employed a new chef.

  3. To use (someone or something) for a job or task.

    • The burglar employed a jemmy to get in.
    • Valiant Othello, we muſt straight employ you, / Againſt the generall Enemy Ottoman.
    • This is a day in which the thoughts[…]ought to be employed on serious subjects.
  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. To make busy

      To make busy; to preoccupy.

      • Let it not enter in your minde of loue: / Be merry, and imploy your chiefeſt thoughts / To courtſhip, and ſuch faire oſtents of loue / As ſhall conueniently become you there;
      • I heard the woods, and distant waters, roar; / Or heard them not, as happy as a Boy: / The pleasant season did my heart employ:

    2. The state of being an employee

      The state of being an employee; employment.

      • The school district has six thousand teachers in its employ.
      • If Siamese in the employ of British subjects offend against the laws of their country,
      • “And so you see, sir,” said I, “there is something to be said upon my side; and this gambling is a very poor employ for gentlefolks. But I am still waiting your opinion.”

    3. An occupation.

      • Still he wrote on. He was too much engrossed in his own charmed employ not to be insensible for a time to all external influences: he might suffer afterwards, but now his mind was his kingdom.

    4. The act of employing someone or making use of something

      The act of employing someone or making use of something; employment.

      • Notwithstanding the employ of general and local bleeding, blisters, &c., the patient died on the fourth day after entrance.

The neighborhood

Derived

disemploy, employable, employ a steam engine to crack a nut, employed, employer, employless, employment, malemploy, misemploy, nonemploying, overemploy, preemploy, reemploy, re-employemployee, unemploy

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at employ. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01employ02employee03labor04political05administrative06administering07administration08employment09employing

A definitional loop anchored at employ. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at employ

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA