occupy
Americanverb (used with object)
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occupies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
occupied,
past participle, past
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occupying
present participle
-
to take or fill up (space, time, etc.).
I occupied my evenings reading novels.
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to engage or employ the mind, energy, or attention of.
Occupy the children with a game while I prepare dinner.
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to be a resident or tenant of; dwell in.
We occupied the same house for 20 years.
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to hold (a position, office, etc.).
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to take possession and control of (a place), as by military invasion.
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Usually Occupy to participate in a protest about (a social or political issue), as by taking possession or control of buildings or public places that are symbolic of the issue.
Let’s Occupy our voting rights!
The Occupy Wall Street movement of late 2011 was a protest against economic inequality.
verb (used without object)
-
occupies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
occupied,
past participle, past
-
occupying
present participle
-
to take or hold possession.
-
Usually Occupy to participate in a protest about a social or political issue.
adjective
verb
-
to live or be established in (a house, flat, office, etc)
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(often passive) to keep (a person) busy or engrossed; engage the attention of
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(often passive) to take up (a certain amount of time or space)
-
to take and hold possession of, esp as a demonstration
students occupied the college buildings
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to fill or hold (a position or rank)
Synonym Usage
See have.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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occupysimple
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occupiessimple
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have occupiedperfect
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has occupiedperfect
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am occupyingprogressive
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are occupyingprogressive
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is occupyingprogressive
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have been occupyingperfect progressive
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has been occupyingperfect progressive
Past
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occupiedsimple
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had occupiedperfect
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was occupyingprogressive
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were occupyingprogressive
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had been occupyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of occupy
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English occupien, from Middle French occuper, from Latin occupāre “to seize, take hold, take up, make one's own,” equivalent to oc- oc- + -cup-, combining form of capere “to take, seize” + -āre infinitive suffix
Explanation
When you spend a lot of your free time reading tea leaves, you occupy yourself with that pastime, meaning it takes up your time and keeps you busy. An army can invade another country and occupy its territory, and this use of the word reflects its original Latin meaning, which was "to seize." There are also less aggressive forms of occupation, as with the family of chipmunks who occupy your garden. If you are the mayor of your town, you occupy an important office. And if you're a fan of Andy Warhol, a series of Campbell's soup can paintings may occupy a prominent place on your walls.
Vocabulary lists containing occupy
The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 2
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The ACT Reading Test: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 2
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The New SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words
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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:
Some of the more dramatic effects from global warming are taking place in the poles, which occupy around 20 percent of the global ocean surface.
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
He can draw the religious pictures he has long done to occupy his time, but he can no longer send those to family and friends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
And now we have arrived at Alison Roman selling “A Very Good Sauce,” including a jar inspired by the caramelized-shallot-and-anchovy pasta that once briefly seemed to occupy half the internet.
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2026
Manchester City's starting XI occupy specific zones on the pitch in their 3-2-5 or 3-1-3-3 shape on the ball.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
The British army could occupy Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, and it did.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
"Samuel occupies an important place in the historical narrative both in Bulgaria and in North Macedonia," Dimitar Bechev, a researcher at the Carnegie Europe think tank, told AFP.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
In the new version, stripped of detours and detail, the same period occupies only a few pages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
As RM steps into the spotlight of the art world, he is learning to become comfortable with the uncomfortable in-between spaces he occupies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026
This interpretation could explain why the 364-day calendar occupies such a prominent place in the Qumran writings even though it appears to have vanished from practical historical use.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
Straddling the border of France and Switzerland, it employs three thousand people and occupies a site that is measured in square miles.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
His favourite pick would be a joint prize to Save the Children and Mykola Kuleba, a Ukrainian children's rights activist campaigning for the return of Ukrainian children illegally taken to Russia from occupied territories.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
The advanced method is known as ancestral sequence reconstruction, which was pioneered by Joseph Thornton, a former UO scientist whose old laboratory space is now occupied by Barber's group.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2026
Today the street’s well-preserved Western and Victorian buildings from the 19th and 20th centuries blend with contemporary storefronts occupied by booksellers, coffee shops, restaurants and galleries, many locally owned.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
The creature is occupied and controlled by Anida Yoeu Ali, a Cambodian-born artist who lives in Tacoma, Wash. Ali’s numerous performance-based exhibits explore her Cambodian-American identity and Buddhist and Muslim religions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
A list of names and their donation amount occupied the right-hand side of the screen.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
"Today and every day, about 14,000 older people are occupying hospital beds when they are medically fit to leave, and it's often because of a lack of social care for them at home," she added.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
However, if your twin brother is already occupying one of the properties, he should be liable for routine costs like utilities, repairs and upkeep.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026
The commander of Ukraine’s drone forces, Robert Brovdi, described them as a part of the larger strategy to make the Russian-occupied peninsula uninhabitable for the occupying forces.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
An estimated 5,000 plant species grow across Taiwan, occupying environments that extend from humid tropical rainforests near sea level to cold alpine tundra at the highest elevations.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026
By occupying the compartment communicating with that of Ratchett she was more open to suspicion than anyone else.
From "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie
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.
