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Employ

//ɪmˈplɔɪ// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun

1
The state of being an employee; employment.
"The school district has six thousand teachers in its employ."
2
the state of being employed or having a job wordnet
3
An occupation. archaic
"Still he wrote on. He was too much engrossed in his own charmed employ not to be insensible for a time to all external influences: he might suffer afterwards, but now his mind was his kingdom."
4
The act of employing someone or making use of something; employment. obsolete
"Notwithstanding the employ of general and local bleeding, blisters, &c., the patient died on the fourth day after entrance."

Verb

1
To retain (someone) as an employee.
"Our company employs hundreds of people."
2
put into service; make work or employ for a particular purpose or for its inherent or natural purpose wordnet
3
To provide (someone) with a new job; to hire. rare
"Yesterday our local garage employed a new mechanic."
4
engage or hire for work wordnet
5
To use (someone or something) for a job or task.
"The burglar employed a jemmy to get in."

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6
To make busy; to preoccupy.
"Let it not enter in your minde of loue: / Be merry, and imploy your chiefeſt thoughts / To courtſhip, and ſuch faire oſtents of loue / As ſhall conueniently become you there;"

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French emploi (“job, employment”), the deverbal from employer (“to put to use, to employ”), first attested in the late 17th century.

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