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employ

 - 3 dictionary results

em⋅ploy

  [em-ploi]
Use employ in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to hire or engage the services of (a person or persons); provide employment for; have or keep in one's service: This factory employs thousands of people.
2. to keep busy or at work; engage the attentions of: He employs himself by reading after work.
3. to make use of (an instrument, means, etc.); use; apply: to employ a hammer to drive a nail.
4. to occupy or devote (time, energies, etc.): I employ my spare time in reading. I employ all my energies in writing.
–noun
5. employment; service: to be in someone's employ.
Origin:
1425–75; late ME employen < AF, MF emploier ≪ L implicāre to enfold (LL: to engage); see implicate
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To employ
em·ploy   (ěm-ploi')   
tr.v.   em·ployed, em·ploy·ing, em·ploys

    1. To engage the services of; put to work: agreed to employ the job applicant.

    2. To provide with gainful work: factories that employ thousands.

  2. To put to use or service. See Synonyms at use.

  3. To devote (time, for example) to an activity or purpose: employed several months in learning Swahili.

n.  

  1. The state of being employed: in the employ of the city.

  2. Archaic Occupation.


[Middle English emploien, from Old French emploier, from Latin implicāre, to involve : in-, in; see en-1 + plicāre, to fold; see plek- in Indo-European roots.]
em·ploy'a·bil'i·ty n., em·ploy'a·ble adj., em·ploy'er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

employ 
c.1460, from M.Fr. employer, from O.Fr. empleier, from L. implicare "enfold, involve, be connected with," from in- "in" + plicare "to fold" see ply (v.)). Sense of "hire, engage" first recorded in Eng. 1584, from "involve in a particular purpose." Imply, which is the same word, retains more of the original sense. Employee (mainly U.S.) is attested from 1850, from Fr. employé (fem. employeé), pp. of employer.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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