employ

What it means

1. To retain (someone) as an employee.

   Our company employs hundreds of people.

   3 more examples

   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.

   1668 July 3rd, James Dalrymple, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Houſtoun” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 547

   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.

   1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax

   The site—which was established in its current form in 2009—employs 60 people and says it gets 12 million visitors a month.

   2012 May 24, Farhad Manjoo, “BOMBSHELL: Business Insider Kinda Brilliant”, in Slate, archived from the original on 05 Jun 2023

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

   Yesterday our local garage employed a new mechanic.

   1 more example

   The management, who were close personal friends, had just employed a new chef.

   2004, Jay Rayner, The Apologist, London: Atlantic Books, →ISBN, page 54

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

   The burglar employed a jemmy to get in.

   5 more examples

   Valiant Othello, we muſt straight employ you, / Againſt the generall Enemy Ottoman.

   c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 313, column 1

   This is a day in which the thoughts[…]ought to be employed on serious subjects.

   1715 April 9 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 29. Tuesday, March 30. [1715.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC

   As to eleemoſynary corporations, by the dotation the founder and his heirs are of common right the legal viſitors, to ſee that that property is rightly employed, which would otherwiſe have deſcended to the viſitor himſelf: […]

   1765, William Blackstone, “Of Corporations”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book I (Of the Rights of Persons), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 469

   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 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200

   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.

   2013 June 2, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at the heart of the trial of Bradley Manning”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 May 2023

   Synonyms: apply, use, utilize

In a sentence

Our company employs hundreds of people.

Where it comes from

1. Latinimplicāre“to infold, entangle, involve, engage”
2. Old Frenchemploiier“to entangle, fabricate, to make use of”
3. Anglo-Normanemploier
4. Middle Englishemploien
5. Englishemploy

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.