employ

/ɪmˈplɔɪ/

employ verb: to retain (someone) as an employee.

Verb

employ (third-person singular simple present employs, present participle employing, simple past and past participle employed)

To retain (someone) as an employee.
- Our company employs hundreds of people.
- Andrew Houſtoun and Adam Muſhet, being Tackſmen of the Excize, did Imploy Thomas Rue to be their Collector, and gave him a Sallary of 30. pound Sterling for a year.1668 July 3rd, James Dalrymple, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Houſtoun” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 547
(rare) To provide (someone) with a new job; to hire.
- Yesterday our local garage employed a new mechanic.
- The management, who were close personal friends, had just employed a new chef.2004, Jay Rayner, The Apologist, London: Atlantic Books, →ISBN, page 54
To use (someone or something) for a job or task.
- The burglar employed a jemmy to get in.
- Valiant Othello, we muſt straight employ you, / Againſt the generall Enemy Ottoman.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
Synonyms:

apply, use, utilize
To make busy; to preoccupy.
- Let it not enter in your minde of loue: / Be merry, and imploy your chiefeſt thoughts / To courtſhip, and ſuch faire oſtents of loue / As ſhall conueniently become you there;c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- I heard the woods, and distant waters, roar; / Or heard them not, as happy as a Boy: / The pleasant season did my heart employ:1815 [1802], William Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence
Synonyms:

occupy, busy

Noun

employ (plural employs)

The state of being an employee; employment.
- The school district has six thousand teachers in its employ.
- If Siamese in the employ of British subjects offend against the laws of their country,1856, “Treaty signed April 18, 1855; ratified April 5, 1856”, in Treaty of friendship and commerce between Great Britain and Siam, Bangkok: J. H. Chandler, page 7
(archaic) An occupation.
- Still he wrote on. He was too much engrossed in his own charmed employ not to be insensible for a time to all external influences: he might suffer afterwards, but now his mind was his kingdom.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A London Life”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 162
(obsolete) The act of employing someone or making use of something; employment.
- Notwithstanding the employ of general and local bleeding, blisters, &c., the patient died on the fourth day after entrance.1833, R. J. Bertin, translated by Charles W. Chauncy, Treatise on the Diseases of the Heart, and Great Vessels, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, page 24

employ meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

employ in Hindi

to give someone work: नियुक्त करना niyukt karnā, इस्तेमाल करना istemāl karnā

employ in Marathi

to employ, force to work: जुंपणे jumpṇe

employ in Urdu

استعمال کرنا, کام دینا, ملازمت دینا, نوکری دینا

More languagesFewer languages

employ in Bengali: লাগানো laganō
employ in Malayalam: പണിയെടുപ്പിക്കുക, ഉപയോഗിക്കുക, നിയമിക്കുക
employ in Kannada: ಕೆಲಸಕ್ಕೆ ನೇಮಿಸಿಕೊ, ನೌಕರಿಕೊಡು, ಬಳಸಿಕೊ, ಉಪಯೋಗಿಸು
employ in Sanskrit: वाहयति vāhayati, संधा saṃdhā
employ in Arabic: وَظَّفَ waẓẓafa
employ in Indonesian: mempekerjakan, memakai, menggunakan
employ in Thai: จ้าง jâang
employ in Vietnamese: dùng, mướn

Examples of employ in a sentence

Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
The site—which was established in its current form in 2009—employs 60 people and says it gets 12 million visitors a month.2012 May 24, Farhad Manjoo, “BOMBSHELL: Business Insider Kinda Brilliant”, in Slate, archived from the original on 05 Jun 2023:
This is a day in which the thoughts[…]ought to be employed on serious subjects.1715 April 9 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 29. Tuesday, March 30. [1715.]”, in The Works of the Right...
Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads.2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200:

All 40 example sentences with employ

Synonyms of employ

10 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of employ

Forms of employ

Verb
third-person singular present	employs
present participle	employing
past participle	employed
past	employed
alternative form (obsolete)	imploy
Noun
plural	employs

Past tense of employ: employed

Origin of employ

From late Middle English emploien, imploien, emplien (“to apply to a specific purpose”), from Anglo-Norman emploier, Old French emploiier (“to entangle, fabricate, to make use of”), ultimately from Latin implicāre (“to infold, entangle, involve, engage”), from in- (“in”) + plicāre (“to fold”). Doublet of imply and implicate.

Borrowed from French emploi (“job, employment”), the deverbal from employer (“to put to use, to employ”), first attested in the late 17th century.

Words formed from employ

Words that rhyme with employ

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about employ

What does employ mean?: Employ means to retain (someone) as an employee.
What is employ in Hindi?: Employ in Hindi is नियुक्त करना (niyukt karnā), इस्तेमाल करना (istemāl karnā). See Employ meaning in Hindi.
How do you use employ in a sentence?: Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.
What part of speech is employ?: Employ can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce employ?: Employ is pronounced /ɪmˈplɔɪ/.
What is the past tense of employ?: The past tense of employ is employed.

Words near employ in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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Cite this entry: “employ.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/employ. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.