• imploy(obsolete)

• IPA^(key):/ɪmˈplɔɪ/,/ɛmˈplɔɪ/

• Audio(General American):

  (file)

• Audio(Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes:-ɔɪ

From lateMiddle Englishemploien,imploien,emplien(“to apply to a specific purpose”), fromAnglo-Normanemploier,Old Frenchemploiier(“to entangle, fabricate, to make use of”),^[1][2] ultimately fromLatinimplicāre(“to infold, entangle, involve, engage”), fromin-(“in”) +plicāre(“to fold”).Doublet ofimply andimplicate.

employ (third-person singular simple presentemploys,present participleemploying,simple past and past participleemployed)

1. To retain (someone) as anemployee.

   Our companyemploys hundreds of people.

   • 1668 July 3rd,James Dalrymple, “Thomas Ruecontra Andrew Houſtoun” inThe Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683),page 547

     Andrew Houſtoun andAdam Muſhet, being Tackſmen of the Excize, didImployThomas Rue to be their Collector, and gave him a Sallary of 30. poundSterling for a year.

   • 1959,Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, inThe Unknown Ajax:

     Charles had not beenemployed 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.

   • 2012 May 24,Farhad Manjoo, “BOMBSHELL: Business Insider Kinda Brilliant”, inSlate‎^[1], archived fromthe original on2023-06-05:

     The site—which was established in its current form in 2009—employs 60 people and says it gets 12 million visitors a month.

2. (rare) To provide (someone) with a newjob; tohire.

   Yesterday our local garageemployed a new mechanic.

   • 2004,Jay Rayner,The Apologist, London:Atlantic Books,→ISBN,page54:

     The management, who were close personal friends, had justemployed a new chef.

3. Touse (someone or something) for ajob ortask.

   Synonyms:apply,use,utilize

   The burglaremployed ajemmy to get in.

   • c.1603–1604 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act I, scene iii],page313, column 1:

     ValiantOthello, we muſt straightemploy you, / Againſt the generall EnemyOttoman.

   • 1715 April 10 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 29. Wednesday, March 30.[1715.]”, inThe Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London:[…]Jacob Tonson, […], published1721,→OCLC:

     This is a day in which the thoughts[…]ought to beemployed on serious subjects.

   • 1765,William Blackstone, “Of Corporations”, inCommentaries on the Laws of England, book I (Of the Rights of Persons), Oxford, Oxfordshire:[…]Clarendon Press,→OCLC,page469:

     As to eleemoſynary corporations, by thedotation the founder and his heirs are of common right the legal viſitors, to ſee that that property is rightlyemployed, which would otherwiſe have deſcended to the viſitor himſelf:[…]

   • 2013 May-June,Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, inAmerican Scientist, volume101, number 3, page200:

     Similar studies of rats haveemployed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads.

   • 2013 June 2,Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at the heart of the trial of Bradley Manning”, inAlan Rusbridger, editor,The Guardian‎^[2], London:Guardian News & Media,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on2023-05-17:

     Having lectured the Arab world about democracy for years, its collusion in suppressing freedom was undeniable as protesters were met by weaponry and tear gas made in the west,employed by a military trained by westerners.

   • 2015 August 22, John Schwartz, “Study Finds Surprising Byproduct of Middle Eastern Conflicts: Cleaner Air”, inThe New York Times‎^[3], New York, N.Y.:The New York Times Company,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on2022-06-16:

     That insight may not seem surprising, given war's dampening effects on economic activity. But the research employed a new tool for recognizing the effects.

   • 2018, Jhariah Clare, “City of Ashes”, inThe Great Tale of How I Ruined it All:

     Whatever theyemploy, I’ll exploit, make null and void!

4. To makebusy; topreoccupy.

   Synonyms:occupy,busy

   • c.1596–1598 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act II, scene viii],page171, column 2:

     Let it not enter in your minde of loue: / Be merry, andimploy your chiefeſt thoughts / To courtſhip, and ſuch faire oſtents of loue / As ſhall conueniently become you there;

   • 1815 [1802],William Wordsworth,Resolution and Independence:

     I heard the woods, and distant waters, roar; / Or heard them not, as happy as a Boy: / The pleasant season did my heartemploy:

Borrowed fromFrenchemploi(“job, employment”), thedeverbal fromemployer(“to put to use, to employ”), first attested in the late 17th century.^[2]

employ (pluralemploys)

1. The state of being anemployee;employment.

   The school district has six thousand teachers in itsemploy.

   • 1856, “Treaty signed April 18, 1855; ratified April 5, 1856”, inTreaty of friendship and commerce between Great Britain and Siam, Bangkok: J. H. Chandler, page 7:

     If Siamese in theemploy of British subjects offend against the laws of their country,

   • 1886May 1 – July 31,Robert Louis Stevenson,Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris:Cassell & Company, published1886,→OCLC:

     “And so you see, sir,” said I, “there is something to be said upon my side; and this gambling is a very pooremploy for gentlefolks. But I am still waiting your opinion.”

2. (archaic) Anoccupation.
   • 1837,L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A London Life”, inEthel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London:Henry Colburn, […],→OCLC,page162:

     Still he wrote on. He was too much engrossed in his own charmedemploy not to be insensible for a time to all external influences: he might suffer afterwards, but now his mind was his kingdom.

3. (obsolete) The act of employing someone ormaking use of something;employment.
   • 1833,R. J. Bertin, translated by Charles W. Chauncy,Treatise on the Diseases of the Heart, and Great Vessels, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, page24:

     Notwithstanding theemploy of general and local bleeding, blisters, &c., the patient died on the fourth day after entrance.

• “employ”, inWebster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.:G. & C. Merriam,1913,→OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney,Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “employ”, inThe Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.:The Century Co.,→OCLC.
• “employ”, inOneLook Dictionary Search.