employ
//ɪmˈplɔɪ//
formalForms
- present (v1)
- employ
- past (v2)
- employed
- past participle (v3)
- employed
- present participle
- employing
- 3rd person singular
- employs
- Plural
- employs
Definitions
1.To retain (someone) as an employee.
- Our company employs hundreds of people.
- The site, which was established in its current form in 2009, employs 60 people and says it gets 12 million visitors a month.
- 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 use (someone or something) for a job or task.
- The burglar employed a jemmy to get in.
- Whatever they employ, I’ll exploit, make null and void!
- That insight may not seem surprising, given war's dampening effects on economic activity. But the research employed a new tool for recognizing the effects.
3.To make busy; to preoccupy.
1.The state of being an employee; employment.
- The school district has six thousand teachers in its employ.
- “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.”
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2173
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Uncommon
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
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”).