occupy

Syllables: oc·cu·py/ˈɒkjʊpaɪ/US/ˈɑkjəpaɪ/

occupy verb: to fill.

Verb

occupy (third-person singular simple present occupies, present participle occupying, simple past and past participle occupied)

(transitive) To fill.
- The film occupied three hours of my time.
- I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
(transitive) To possess or use the time or capacity of; to engage the service of.
- The film occupied me for three hours.
- I occupy myself with gardening for a few hours every day.
Synonyms:

employ, busy, exercise
(transitive) To fill or hold (an official position or role).
- I occupy the post of deputy cat catcher.
(transitive) To hold the attention of.
- I occupied her friend while he made his proposal.
(transitive) To fill space.
- The historic mansion occupied two city blocks.
(transitive) To live or reside in.
- The better apartments were already occupied.1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC
- With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what...1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii
(transitive) To have, or to have taken, possession or control of (a territory).
- The Japanese can occupy but cannot hold, and what they can hold they cannot hold long, was the opinion of General Pai Chung-hsi, Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese Army, […]1940, The China monthly review, volumes 94-95, page 370
- Rupert, with his usual untamable energy, was scouring the country — but at first in the wrong direction, that of Aylesbury, another keypoint in the outer ring of Oxford defences, which he occupied but could not hold.1975, Esmé Cecil Wingfield-Stratford, King Charles and King Pym, 1637-1643, page 330
(transitive) To place the theodolite or total station at (a point).
(obsolete, transitive) To have sexual intercourse with.
- God's light, these villains will make the word as odious as the word 'occupy;' which was an excellent good word before it was ill sorted1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- OCCUPY, [sensu obsc.] To possess, or enjoy.
  These villains will make the word captain, as odious as the word occupy. 2 Hen. IV, ii, 4.
  Groyne, come of age, his state sold out of hand
  For 's whore; Groyne still doth occupy his land. B. Jons. Epigr., 117.
  Many, out of their own obscene apprehensions...1867, Robert Nares A Glossary
Synonyms:

coitize
(obsolete) To do business in; to busy oneself with.
- All the ships of the sea, with their mariners, were in thee to occupy the merchandise.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ezekiel 27:9
- not able to occupy their old crafts1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin), 1516
(obsolete) To use; to expend; to make use of.
- all the gold that was occupied for the work1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 38:24
- They occupy not money themselves.1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin), 1516

Proper noun capitalized: Occupy

Occupy

Synonym of OWS (“"Occupy Wall Street" protest movement”).

Synonyms:

OWS

occupy meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

occupy in Urdu

گھیرنا, پر کرنا, قابض ہونا, قبضہ کرنا, سکونت کرنا, زیرتسلط کرنا

occupy in Telugu

have (taken) control of: ఆక్రమించు ākramiñcu

More languagesFewer languages

occupy in Malayalam: വസിക്കുക, കൈവശപ്പെടുത്തുക, ഔദ്യോഗിക സ്ഥാനം അലങ്കരിക്കുക
occupy in Kannada: ನೆಲಸು, ಬಾಡಿಗೆಗೆ ಇರು, ವ್ಯಾಪಿಸು, ಆಕ್ರಮಿಸು
occupy in Odia: ଘେନିବା ghenibā
occupy in Nepali: मिच्नु micnu
occupy in Arabic: اِحْتَلَّ iḥtalla
occupy in Thai: ยึดครอง yʉ́t-krɔɔng

Examples of occupy in a sentence

All the beds of the hotel are currently occupied, but we have a free room tomorrow.
Most of the site was occupied by huts, but there was an open area in the centre.
You may not move a piece to a square already occupied by one of your own pieces.

All 40 example sentences with occupy

Synonyms of occupy

All synonyms of occupy

Forms of occupy

third-person singular present	occupies
present participle	occupying
past participle	occupied
past	occupied
second-person singular present (archaic)	occupiest
third-person singular present (archaic)	occupieth

Past tense of occupy: occupied

Origin of occupy

From Middle English occupien, occupyen, borrowed from Old French occuper, from Latin occupāre (“to take possession of, seize, occupy, take up, employ”), from ob (“to, on”) + capiō (“to take”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to seize, grab”). Doublet of occupate, now obsolete.

Words formed from occupy

Questions about occupy

What does occupy mean?: Occupy means to fill.
What is occupy in Tamil?: Occupy in Tamil is நிரப்புதல், தங்குதல். See Occupy meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is occupy?: Occupy can be a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce occupy?: Occupy is pronounced /ˈɒkjʊpaɪ/ (UK).
What is the past tense of occupy?: The past tense of occupy is occupied.

Words near occupy in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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

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