Employ
[ɪm'plɒɪ;em-] or [ɪm'plɔɪ]
Definition
(v. t.) To inclose; to infold.
(v. t.) To use; to have in service; to cause to be engaged in doing something; -- often followed by in, about, on, or upon, and sometimes by to; as: (a) To make use of, as an instrument, a means, a material, etc., for a specific purpose; to apply; as, to employ the pen in writing, bricks in building, words and phrases in speaking; to employ the mind; to employ one's energies.
(v. t.) To occupy; as, to employ time in study.
(v. t.) To have or keep at work; to give employment or occupation to; to intrust with some duty or behest; as, to employ a hundred workmen; to employ an envoy.
(n.) That which engages or occupies a person; fixed or regular service or business; employment.
Edited by Jimmy
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Busy, engage, engross, exercise, occupy.[2]. Use, apply, make use of.[3]. Entrust with an agency, enlist in one's service, give employment to.
n. [Poetical.] Employment.
Edited by Cary
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:reapply, economize, occupy, engage, engross
ANT:Discard, dismiss, misuse, misemploy
Typist: Remington
Examples
- Ott, who has remained in his employ for over forty years. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- It was the work of this brutal ruffian whom he had the misfortune to employ. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- We could not then employ him; but I foolishly let him know, as a secret, that I soon intended to begin a newspaper, and might then have work for him. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- The 8000 or so motion-picture theatres of the country employ no fewer than 40,000 people, whose aggregate annual income amounts to not less than $37,000,000. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Whoever Colonel Campbell might employ, said Frank Churchill, with a smile at Emma, the person has not chosen ill. Jane Austen. Emma.
- To effect that object, it is necessary to employ a voltaic battery separated from the vessel in which the decomposition takes place. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
- His abilities, in both these respects, are generally in proportion to the extent of his stock, or to the number of people whom it can employ. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- No my dear lady, in regard to my being employed just now, looking out for work. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- A hard-working man, and not overstrong, he would return to his home from the machine-shop where he was employed, and throw himself on the bed night after night to rest. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- In the hydraulic form of elevator, a motor worked by water is employed to lift the car, although steam power is also employed to raise the water. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- While the frictional appliance is still employed in medicine, it ranks with the flint axe and the tinder-box in industrial obsolescence. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Inasmuch as the nitrogen of liquid air evaporates first, and leaves nearly pure liquid oxygen, it may also be employed as a means for producing and applying oxygen. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- Each turbine in a penstock represents the power of 5,000 horses, and there are now ten or more employed. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- The best faculties of man are employed for futurity: speaking is better than acting, writing is better than speaking. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- The power and efficiency of a dynamo are increased by employing the devices previously mentioned in connection with the motor. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- In 1800 Mears devised a machine employing shears. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- Yet so strong is the appearance of this having occurred that naturalists can hardly avoid employing language having this plain signification. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- At present, intellectual and emotional limitation characterizes both the employing and the employed class. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- So I conceived of an engine employing guncotton. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- These inventors conceived and put in practice the great idea of employing the current from an electro-magnetic machine to excite its own electric magnet. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- The contrivance was a mere toy, employing no light and being merely a little machine which, when revolved, gave figures, printed in different positions, the semblance of motion. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Their labour, it is said, replaces only the stock which employs them, together with its ordinary profits. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- The mimeograph employs a pointed stylus, used as in writing with a lead-pencil, which is moved over a kind of tough prepared paper placed on a finely grooved steel plate. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- The industry employs many thousands of people in the manufacture of these instruments and records which afford entertainment, instruction and amusement to the entire world. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- The growing of wool is not the chief purpose for which the sheep farmer employs his industry and stock. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- A smaller proportion of it will, therefore, be sufficient to replace, with the ordinary profit, the stock which employs that labour. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- The labour of menial servants does not continue the existence of the fund which maintains and employs them. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- The retailer himself is the only productive labourer whom it immediately employs. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
Editor: Theresa