occupy

present singular third person occupies · participle present occupying · participle past occupied · past occupied · first person past singular occupied · archaic present second person singular occupiest · past second person singular occupied · present singular third person occupies · archaic present singular third person occupieth · past singular third person occupied · past plural occupied · past subjunctive occupied · participle present occupying · participle past occupied

1. To take or use.
   1. transitiveTo fill.

      The film occupied three hours of my time.

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      I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.

      1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   2. transitiveTo possess or use the time or capacity of; to engage the service of.

      The film occupied me for three hours.

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      I occupy myself with gardening for a few hours every day.

      Synonyms: employ, busy, exercise

   3. transitiveTo fill or hold (an official position or role).

      I occupy the post of deputy cat catcher.

   4. transitiveTo hold the attention of.

      I occupied her friend while he made his proposal.

2. To take or use space.
   1. transitiveTo fill space.

      The historic mansion occupied two city blocks.

   2. transitiveTo live or reside in.

      The better apartments were already occupied.

      1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC

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      With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get[…]

      1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii

   3. transitivegovernmentTo have, or to have taken, possession or control of (a territory).

      Germany occupied France for three years while France struggled to make payments that were a condition of surrender.

      1991, Werner Spies, John William Gabriel, Max Ernst collages: the invention of the surrealist universe, page 333

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      The Japanese can occupy but cannot hold, and what they can hold they cannot hold long, was the opinion of General Pai Chung-hsi, Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese Army, […]

      1940, The China monthly review, volumes 94-95, page 370

      Rupert, with his usual untamable energy, was scouring the country — but at first in the wrong direction, that of Aylesbury, another keypoint in the outer ring of Oxford defences, which he occupied but could not hold.

      1975, Esmé Cecil Wingfield-Stratford, King Charles and King Pym, 1637-1643, page 330

      One of the rebel marksmen, who had taken up position on a boulder, was knocked off it by the recoil of his weapon every time he fired. Again the attack achieved nothing. Positions were occupied, but could not be held.

      1983, Arthur Keppel-Jones, Rhodes and Rhodesia: The White Conquest of Zimbabwe, 1884-1902, page 462

      Spain occupied, but could not populate, and its failure to expand Florida led Britain to consider the peninsula a logical extension of its colonial holdings.

      2006, John Michael Francis, Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, page 496

   4. transitivegeographyTo place the theodolite or total station at (a point).
3. obsoletetransitiveTo have sexual intercourse with.

   God's light, these villains will make the word as odious as the word 'occupy;' which was an excellent good word before it was ill sorted

   1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]

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   1867, Robert Nares A Glossary OCCUPY, [sensu obsc.] To possess, or enjoy. These villains will make the word captain, as odious as the word occupy. 2 Hen. IV, ii, 4. Groyne, come of age, his state sold out of hand For 's whore; Groyne still doth occupy his land. B. Jons. Epigr., 117. Many, out of their own obscene apprehensions, refuse proper and fit words, as occupy, nature, and the like. Ibid., Discoveries, vol. vii, p. 119. It is so used also in Rowley's New Wonder, Anc. Dr., v, 278.

   Synonyms: coitize

4. obsoleteTo do business in; to busy oneself with.

   not able to occupy their old crafts

   1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin), 1516

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   All the ships of the sea, with their mariners, were in thee to occupy the merchandise.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ezekiel 27:9

5. obsoleteTo use; to expend; to make use of.

   They occupy not money themselves.

   1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin), 1516

   1 more example

   all the gold that was occupied for the work

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 38:24

1. Synonym of OWS (“"Occupy Wall Street" protest movement”).

   Synonyms: OWS