Occupy

The film occupied three hours of my time.

I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.

The film occupied me for three hours.

I occupy myself with gardening for a few hours every day.

I occupy the post of deputy cat catcher.

I occupied her friend while he made his proposal.

The historic mansion occupied two city blocks.

The better apartments were already occupied.

With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get[…]

The Japanese can occupy but cannot hold, and what they can hold they cannot hold long, was the opinion of General Pai Chung-hsi, Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese Army, […]

Rupert, with his usual untamable energy, was scouring the country — but at first in the wrong direction, that of Aylesbury, another keypoint in the outer ring of Oxford defences, which he occupied but could not hold.

One of the rebel marksmen, who had taken up position on a boulder, was knocked off it by the recoil of his weapon every time he fired. Again the attack achieved nothing. Positions were occupied, but could not be held.

Germany occupied France for three years while France struggled to make payments that were a condition of surrender.

Spain occupied, but could not populate, and its failure to expand Florida led Britain to consider the peninsula a logical extension of its colonial holdings.

God's light, these villains will make the word as odious as the word 'occupy;' which was an excellent good word before it was ill sorted

1867, Robert Nares A Glossary OCCUPY, [sensu obsc.] To possess, or enjoy. These villains will make the word captain, as odious as the word occupy. 2 Hen. IV, ii, 4. Groyne, come of age, his state sold out of hand For 's whore; Groyne still doth occupy his land. B. Jons. Epigr., 117. Many, out of their own obscene apprehensions, refuse proper and fit words, as occupy, nature, and the like. Ibid., Discoveries, vol. vii, p. 119. It is so used also in Rowley's New Wonder, Anc. Dr., v, 278.

All the ships of the sea, with their mariners, were in thee to occupy the merchandise.

not able to occupy their old crafts

all the gold that was occupied for the work

They occupy not money themselves.