Employ
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ɪmˈplɔɪ/, /ɛmˈplɔɪ/Rhymes: -ɔɪ
Alternative forms
- imploy obsolete
Origin
From Middle French employer, from Latin implicare ("to infold, involve, engage"), from in ("in") + plicare ("to fold"). Compare imply and implicate, which are doublets of employ .
Full definition of employ
Noun
employ
(plural employs)- The state of being an employee; employment.''The school district has six thousand teachers in its employ.
Synonyms
Verb
- To hire (somebody for work or a job).Yesterday our local garage employed a new mechanic.
- 1668 July 3rd, James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount of Stair, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Houſtoun†in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 547Andrew 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, The Unknown Ajax Chapter 1, 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, Charles T. Ambrose, Alzheimer’s Disease, 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.
- 2013-06-07, Gary Younge, Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution, 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