employ
/ɪmˈplɔɪ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.96 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To use (someone or something) for a job or task.
noun
The state of being an employee; employment.
Example Sentences
- "Our company employs hundreds of people."
- "Andrew Houſtoun and Adam Muſhet, being Tackſmen of the Excize, did Imploy Thomas Rue to be their Collector, and gave him a Sallary of 30. pound Sterling for a year."
- "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."
- "The site—which was established in its current form in 2009—employs 60 people and says it gets 12 million visitors a month."
- "Yesterday our local garage employed a new mechanic."
- "The management, who were close personal friends, had just employed a new chef."
Etymology
From late Middle English emploien, imploien, emplien (“to apply to a specific purpose”), from Anglo-Norman emploier, Old French emploiier (“to entangle, fabricate, to make use of”), ultimately from Latin implicāre (“to infold, entangle, involve, engage”), from in- (“in”) + plicāre (“to fold”). Doublet of imply and implicate.
Origin
- Source language: Middle English
- First known use: first attested in the late 17th century
Word Breakdown
- Root: *pleḱ-, emploien, emploier, emploiier, implicō
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
employ a steam engine to crack a nut
re-employemployee