employ
Americanverb (used with object)
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employs,
present (3rd person singular)
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employed,
past participle, past
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employing
present participle
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to hire or engage the services of (a person or persons); provide employment for; have or keep in one's service.
This factory employs thousands of people.
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to make use of (an instrument, means, etc.); use; apply.
We employ objective and scientific methods to analyze all management areas.
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to keep busy or at work; engage the attentions of.
He employs himself by reading after work.
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to occupy or devote (time, energies, etc.).
I employ my spare time in reading. I employ all my energies in writing.
noun
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employs
plural
verb
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to engage or make use of the services of (a person) in return for money; hire
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to provide work or occupation for; keep busy; occupy
collecting stamps employs a lot of his time
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to use as a means
to employ secret measures to get one's ends
noun
Usage
What does employ mean? To employ someone is to pay them to work. An employer employs employees. The state of being employed is employment. A more specific use of employ is as a noun meaning employment or service. This sense of the word is almost always used in phrases like in their employ. Employ also means to use, as in This task will require you to employ a different skill set. Less commonly, employ can mean to keep one busy or occupy one, as in During flights I usually employ myself with some knitting. Example: My company employs more than 500 people.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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employabilitynoun
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overemployverb (used with object)
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preemployverb (used with object)
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reemployverb (used with object)
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employableadjective
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nonemployingadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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employsimple
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employssimple
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have employedperfect
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has employedperfect
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am employingprogressive
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are employingprogressive
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is employingprogressive
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have been employingperfect progressive
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has been employingperfect progressive
Past
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employedsimple
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had employedperfect
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was employingprogressive
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were employingprogressive
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had been employingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of employ
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English employen, from Anglo-French, Middle French emploier, ultimately derived from Latin implicāre “to enfold” ( Late Latin: “to engage”); see implicate
Explanation
To employ means to use something or hire someone to work. You can employ a saw to cut a board or employ a tutor to teach you math. You can even employ your talents in study and activities. The Latin source of employ is the word implicāre, which literally means to enfold or be connected with. This ties in with the verb employ, which is transitive and needs a direct object. (You can't just say "I will employ — you have to employ something.) The word also suggests using something for a specific purpose: you can employ someone for a job or find something in which to employ your own interests.
Vocabulary lists containing employ
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 1–6
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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
While health and social care roles employ many of the Africans, job opportunities for those born locally, and refugees, can be hard to find.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
According to the city authorities, the 29 facilities that charge a fee do so because they employ toilet attendants.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
And, yes, it does cheekily employ its own famous masthead as part of the very special effect.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
Amazon’s last-mile delivery network relies on some 40 subcontractors, which employ more than 5,000 workers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Four hundred years before Eratosthenes, Africa had been circumnavigated by a Phoenician fleet in the employ of the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Meta employs about 1,500 people in Ireland, with Dublin home to its international headquarters.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
At Paul Wissmach Glass Co., which employs 35 people in Paden City, W.Va., co-owner Jason Wilburn said he has been hit by double-digit premium increases each year since his family bought the company in 2021.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Gates attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., before starting Kamanu Composites, which employs aerospace-grade machinery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Faith blossoms as Annie comes to understand Xavier’s driving need to reunite with his spouse, and the loving father of two employs a bag of flour to teach her swaddling lessons.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
"Rose Johnson is a teacher here," she informs Dr. Williams, as if he doesn't know the school employs Shanti's other grandmother.
From "You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins
“This is a consumer who is employed, still spending and increasingly disciplined about it,” Hayes added.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
Few, perhaps, would have employed the same tactics Cohen used.
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2026
More recently, the computer manufacturer IBM employed more than 5,000 people at its campus near Greenock.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
These tactics are often employed by transnational criminal groups that consist primarily of Mexican citizens from Sinaloa state, a Homeland Security Investigations special agent said in affidavits filed in federal court last year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
For hypotheses should be employed only in explaining the properties of things, but not assumed in determining them; unless so far as they may furnish experiments.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
Those who trust these writers’ capabilities with using comic book properties as springboards to examine thornier issues can probably deduce that “Lanterns” is employing it for a specific reason.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026
The Long Beach Police Department also installed the Rumbler into patrol vehicles in 2009, employing the system in most units until 2023.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
Films used ballet as a perfunctory nod to high culture, for instance employing the likes of George Balanchine to create brief numbers for films such as “The Goldwyn Follies” in 1938.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Kellanova, maker of Pringles chips in Europe, is working with Siemens to perfect the canister-dispensed snack item, an effort employing AI, but also digital twins.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
But the appearance of its owner, the burliest of several women now employing the establishment’s facilities, deterred him.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
