employ
Americanverb (used with object)
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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
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:
Mike Casey, an adviser in Alexandria, Va., has had many clients employ this conversion strategy, mostly because they already had significant savings and knew more work was coming.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
They employ all manners of external stimuli and self-optimization techniques to approach even a fraction of what your heart is naturally capable of.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
Both programs will employ forward deployed engineers who work onsite with clients to plan and build AI applications.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
They employ a number of former City staff members, including first-team coach Calum McFarlane and recently promoted academy director Glenn van der Kraan.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Initially Root planned to employ a technique that Chicago architects had used since 1873 to support buildings of ordinary stature.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
JLR, which has its global headquarters at Whitley and manufacturing sites in Solihull, Wolverhampton, and Halewood on Merseyside, employs about 30,000 people in its UK operations, with approximately 10,000 people employed at plants overseas.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
The global company employs about 23,800 people, including many in California.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
The services side of the economy — restaurants, retailers, hospitals and so forth — employs most Americans.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
IBM employs close to 300,000 people, a vast workforce 50% larger than that of Google parent company Alphabet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
It houses the embassy, Ambassador Kennedy’s family, and also employs Olivia McQuatters and hundreds of other Americans.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
JLR, which has its global headquarters at Whitley and manufacturing sites in Solihull, Wolverhampton, and Halewood on Merseyside, employs about 30,000 people in its UK operations, with approximately 10,000 people employed at plants overseas.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
The group makes combat vehicles, ammunition, missile launchers and artillery systems, including the M777 howitzer that Ukraine has employed widely in its fight against Russia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
"My responsibility is to make sure all of this lot get paid," he says, referring to his 30-strong team, which includes bakers, delivery drivers and Saturday staff employed in the cafe that adjoins the bakery.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
He loves to headbang while playing the hurdy-gurdy, an instrument he picked up in 2010 and later employed in the “Black Sails” show and “God of War: Ragnarok” video game.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 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
On Thursday, the Philippines accused the China Coast Guard of employing water cannon and dangerous manoeuvres at Scarborough.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
“Cast Away” is a masterwork of creative fiction, employing historical scholarship, biblical allusions and Jungian psychology to deliver one of the most beguiling survival stories ever written.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Many job seekers are employing artificial intelligence to rehearse asking for a higher salary by using large language models like Claude or ChatGPT to practice a mock negotiation.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
There are more than 70 cardrooms across California employing about 20,000 workers, according to the California Gaming Assn.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Economists, meanwhile, say that the gradual improvement in the city’s economy over the course of the 1990s had the effect of employing those who might otherwise have become criminals.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
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.
