employ

[ em-ploi ]

/ ɛmˈplɔɪ /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR employ ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object)

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.

to keep busy or at work; engage the attentions of: He employs himself by reading after work.

to make use of (an instrument, means, etc.); use; apply: to employ a hammer to drive a nail.

to occupy or devote (time, energies, etc.): I employ my spare time in reading. I employ all my energies in writing.

noun

employment; service: to be in someone's employ.

Nearby words

Origin of employ

1425–75; late Middle English employen < Anglo-French, Middle French emploier ≪ Latin implicāre to enfold (Late Latin: to engage); see implicate

Related forms

de-em·ployed, adjectivenon·em·ploy·ing, adjectiveo·ver·em·ploy, verb (used with object)pre·em·ploy, verb (used with object)

re·em·ploy, verb (used with object)well-em·ployed, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for employed

In fact, the estrogen that they employed did worse than castrate the subject—it could act as a cerebral depressant.
The Castration of Alan Turing, Britain’s Code-Breaking WWII Hero|Clive Irving|November 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Apparently, the Major Case Squad is employed when homicides are fresh, East St. Louis Det. Gilda Johnson told me.
The Disappearing Cops of East St. Louis|Justin Glawe|November 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It has always featured the very best voices and employed the most sophisticated stagecraft of any opera house.
Inside the Metropolitan Opera’s Insane Year|Shawn E. Milnes|November 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Politicians of both major political parties have employed "Born in the U.S.A." in recent years.
Are Politicians Too Dumb to Understand the Lyrics to ‘Born in the USA’?|Parker Molloy|November 6, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Taxes are an obvious benchmark, since right now, employed teenagers are literally subjected to taxation without representation.
Paying Taxes and Going to Jail Like Adults; Teens Deserve the Right to Vote, Too|Jillian Keenan|October 6, 2014|DAILY BEAST
At all periods many intaglios are found which could not have been so employed without great difficulty.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 5|Various
Of quite late years, however, this was corrected, and the few who were then employed were more liberally dealt with.
An Old Coachman's Chatter with some Practical Remarks on Driving|Edward Corbett
He expatiated with great profoundness and fertility of ideas, on the uses to which a faculty like this might be employed.
Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist|Charles Brockden Brown
But Mr Nearthewinde is a safe man, and easy to be employed with but little danger.
Doctor Thorne|Anthony Trollope
Four men, who were employed in cleansing a sewer, were so affected by the fœtid vapours, that they were unable to ascend.
The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes|Various

British Dictionary definitions for employed

employ

/ (ɪmˈplɔɪ) /

verb (tr)

to engage or make use of the services of (a person) in return for money; hire

to provide work or occupation for; keep busy; occupycollecting stamps employs a lot of his time

to use as a meansto employ secret measures to get one's ends

noun

the state of being employed (esp in the phrase in someone's employ)

Derived Formsemployable, adjectiveemployability, noun

Word Origin for employ

C15: from Old French emploier, from Latin implicāre to entangle, engage, from plicāre to fold

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for employed

employ

early 15c., from Middle French employer, from Old French emploiier (12c.) "make use of, apply; increase; entangle; devote," from Latin implicare "enfold, involve, be connected with," from in- (see in- (2)) + plicare "to fold" (see ply (v.1)).

Sense of "hire, engage" first recorded in English 1580s, from "involve in a particular purpose," a sense which arose in Late Latin. Related: Employed; employing. The noun is 1660s, from French emploi. Imply, which is the same word, retains more of the original sense.