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:
The Dodgers’ revenue advantage remains significant, not just because of their SportsNet LA deal but because they fill the largest stadium in the majors almost every night and employ Shohei Ohtani.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
In 1983, the Greater London Council Grants Committee awarded one of his projects enough money to rent an office and employ staff.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
The two centers employ roughly 45 staff members, including about 36 teachers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 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
Although Ona had always done Mrs. Washington’s hair, Martha Washington began to employ a hairdresser in New York.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
The Transformation of Industry unit employs 17,000 workers and reported 5.7 billion euros in revenue, equivalent to $6.66 billion, with an 11.3% profit margin in its 2025 fiscal year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Meta employs about 1,500 people in Ireland, with Dublin home to its international headquarters.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
Lodge today employs about 570 people, near its all-time high during the Covid pandemic, and is the largest employer in the county.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
The Port Glasgow firm currently employs 283 staff, including 34 apprentices - but says it expects to shed 70 posts through a voluntary redundancy process.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
Today the company employs about 200,000 people worldwide, most of whom are complete strangers to each other.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
Its $500 million stake in Anthropic was later sold for $1.3 billion to a group that included Jane Street, the quant trading firm that once employed Bankman-Fried and would later invest in Aschenbrenner’s hedge fund.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Writers who remained employed on this hollowed-out web were increasingly left wondering where all their favorite haunts had gone.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
When I was hired I signed a non-compete that said I can’t work for a “direct competitor” for 12 months after I stop being employed by my current company.
From MarketWatch ● 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
After the death of Duke Filippo, the Milanese employed Francesco Sforza to wage war against the Venetians; having defeated the enemy at Caravaggio, he joined with them to oppress the Milanese, his employers.
From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli
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
Raleigh was founded in Nottingham in 1887 and at one stage was the biggest bicycle maker in the world, employing about 8,000 people at its peak.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 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
Global groups like Accenture, Concentrix and Teleperformance built sprawling campuses, employing hundreds of thousands of Filipinos.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
“And League intelligence about PSFs in that area. It seems that Leda Corporation is now employing the government to protect their shipments.”
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
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.
