Past tense of employ
regular verb
The past tense of employ is employed. The past participle is also employed.
Forms of employ
| Base form (V1) | employ /ɪmˈplɔɪ/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | employed /ɪmˈplɔɪd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | employed /ɪmˈplɔɪd/ |
| Present participle | employing |
| Third person singular | employs |
Employed 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
- Yesterday our local garage employed a new mechanic.
- He worked as a civilian journalist for ten years before being employed by the public broadcaster.From the entry civilian
- When his back problems kept him from lifting furniture, his skill as a packer kept him employed.From the entry packer
- She is employed by a waterworks at the outskirts of the city.From the entry waterworks
Meaning of employ
- verb To retain (someone) as an employee.
- verb To provide (someone) with a new job; to hire.
- verb To use (someone or something) for a job or task.
Questions about the past tense of employ
- What is the past tense of employ?
- The past tense of employ is employed.
- What is the past participle of employ?
- The past participle of employ is employed.
- Is employ a regular or irregular verb?
- Employ is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: employ (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of employ.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/employ. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.