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employed - 2 dictionary results

em⋅ploy

  [em-ploi]
Use employed 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 employed
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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