hire

/ˈhaɪ(.)ə/US/ˈhaɪɹ/

hire noun: a person who has been hired, especially in a cohort.

Noun

hire (countable and uncountable, plural hires)

(countable) A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort.
- We pair up each of our new hires with one of our original hires.
- Employment statistics, the other key indicator of Diversity & Inclusion performance, shows that almost 30% of new Southeastern hires are women.2024 February 21, Nick Brodrick, “Inclusion and development for all”, in RAIL, number 1003, page 62
(uncountable) The state of being hired, or having a job; employment.
- When my grandfather retired, he had over twenty mechanics in his hire.
Synonyms:

employ
(uncountable) Payment for the temporary use of something.
- The sign offered pedalos on hire.
(obsolete, uncountable) Reward.
- I vvill him reaue of armes, the victors hire, / And of that ſhield, more vvorthy of good knight; / For vvhy ſhould a dead dog be deckt in armour bright?1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- I have five hundred crovvns, / The thrifty hire I ſav'd under your father […]c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

Verb

hire (third-person singular simple present hires, present participle hiring, simple past and past participle hired)

(Australia, UK, transitive) To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.
- We hired a car for two weeks because ours had broken down.
- “[…] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
Synonyms:

rent
(UK, transitive) To occupy premises in exchange for rent.
- I do not mean to insist here on the disadvantage of hiring compared with owning, but it is evident that the savage owns his shelter because it costs so little, while the civilized man hires his commonly because he cannot afford to own it; nor can he, in the long run, any better afford to hire.1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Economy”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC
Synonyms:

rent
(transitive) To employ; to obtain the services of (a person) in exchange for remuneration; to give someone a job.
- The company had problems when it tried to hire more skilled workers.
- The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
(transitive) To exchange the services of for remuneration.
- They hired themselves out as day laborers. They hired out their basement for Inauguration week.
(UK, transitive) To accomplish by paying for services.
- After waiting two years for her husband to finish the tiling, she decided to hire it done.
(intransitive) To accept employment.
- They hired out as day laborers.
(transitive) (neologism) (in the Jobs-to-be-Done Theory) To buy something in order for it to perform a function, to do a job
- They hired a milkshake.

Proper noun capitalized: Hire

Hire (plural Hires)

A surname.

hire meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

hire in Hindi

the state of being hired, or having a job; employment: नियुक्ति niyukti
to employ: नियुक्त करना niyukt karnā

hire in Tamil

வாடகைக்கு அமர்த்து, வாடகைக்கு விடு, பணியிலமர்த்து, வேலையில் சேர்த்து, வாடகைக்கு இருத்தல்ய வாடகைக்கு எடுத்தல், பணியமர்த்தல்

hire in Bengali

ভাড়া, মজুরি, কেরায়া, নিষ্ক্রয়, ভাড়া করা, ভাড়া লত্তয়া

More languagesFewer languages

hire in Malayalam: വാടക, കൂലി, വേതനം, പാരിതോഷികം
hire in Kannada: ಬಾಡಿಗೆಗೆ ಕೊಡು, ಬಾಡಿಗೆಗೆ ತೆಗೆದುಕೊ, ಕೂಲಿಗೆ ಗೊತ್ತು ಮಾಡಿಕೊ, ಮಜೂರಿಗೆ ಇಟ್ಟುಕೊ
hire in Gujarati: ભરતી કરો, ભાડે રાખવા માટે, ભાડે લેવા માટે
hire in Odia: ଠିକା ṭhikā
hire in Sanskrit: भृति
hire in Sinhala: කුලි kuli, කුලිය kuliya
hire in Nepali: हायर गर्नु hāyar garnu
hire in Arabic: أَجَّرَ ʔajjara, اِسْتَخْدَمَ istaḵdama, شَغَّلَ šaḡḡala, اِسْتَعْمَلَ istaʕmala
hire in Malay: upahan
hire in Thai: จ้าง jâang
hire in Vietnamese: thuê, mướn, tuyển

Examples of hire in a sentence

His lieutenants hired a team of miners to help spring him.
The company claims it has hired several minorities since the complaint was lodged.
Extra security was hired to police the crowd at the big game.

All 40 example sentences with hire

Synonyms of hire

employ
rent

Antonyms

fire

Forms of hire

Noun
plural	hires
Verb
third-person singular present	hires
present participle	hiring
past participle	hired
past	hired
Proper noun
plural	Hires

Past tense of hire: hired

Plural of hire: hires

Origin of hire

From Middle English hire, hyre, here, hure, from Old English hȳr (“employment for wages; pay for service; interest on money lent”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūʀiju (“payment”), from the verb *hūʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *hūzijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *kewHs- or *kweHs-. Compare Hittite 𒆪𒊭𒀭 (kuššan-, “fee, pay, wages, price”). Cognate with West Frisian hier (“hire”), Dutch huur (“lease, rental”), German Low German Hüür (“lease, rental”).

From Middle English hiren, hyren, from Old English hȳrian (“to hire”), from the noun (see above). Compare West Frisian hiere (“to rent, lease”), Dutch huren (“to rent, lease”), Low German hüren (“to rent”), Danish hyre (“to hire”), Swedish hyra (“to hire”). Eclipsed Middle English souden (“to hire, employ, enlist”), borrowed from Old French souder, soudre, souldre (“to take into employ, pay”); see English sold (“salary, military pay”).

* As a Dutch and German surname, Americanized from Heier, Heyer. * As an English surname, variant of Heare. * As an Irish surname, variant of Hare.

Words formed from hire

Phrases with hire

Words that rhyme with hire

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hire

What does hire mean?: Hire means a person who has been hired, especially in a cohort.
What is hire in Hindi?: Hire in Hindi is नियुक्ति (niyukti), नियुक्त करना (niyukt karnā). See Hire meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is hire?: Hire can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hire?: Hire is pronounced /ˈhaɪ(.)ə/ (UK).
What is the plural of hire?: The plural of hire is hires.

Words near hire in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hire.wav.

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