to employ

Examples

• All

• Nearly all of these roles were filled by individuals employed by the school, not the agency.

  Academic text (2011)

• And so they started employing me part time to teach.

  Film Courage

• Someone said to me once, what do you look for when you employ staff?

• How many people are employed here?

  The China Syndrome (1979)

• Simply put, a music program that serves more students will employ more music teachers.

  Academic text (2011)

• We employ 16 women in our steno pool.

  Fly Me to the Moon (2024)

• Every museum, well, at least most museums employ a curator, right?

• Bonamo employed hundreds of immigrants to this country as dirt haulers and stonecutters.

  Fear No Evil (1981)

• Tracey Smith, from Oxhey, Hertfordshire, was employed as an unqualified assistant social worker in 2009 and 2010.

  Academic text (2011)

• The company decided to employ three new engineers to enhance their project team.

Synonyms

H

to hire

vsto employ

∞ 1.4

To give someone a job and pay them for their work

is the more formal term for giving work and paying someone

E

to engage

vsto employ

212 3.2

To hire someone to do a job

focuses specifically on giving work and paying someone rather than just securing services

Antonyms

F

to fire

∞ 2.8

To officially make someone leave their job

L

to lay off

87 3.3

Stop employing someone because the company cannot afford them, not because of bad work

Idioms

E

to employ a steam engine to crack a nut

• Informal

9.5

To use much more effort or help than needed to do a small task

How Permanent

to retain

236 3.4

to appoint

• Formal

580 3.2

to employ

350 2.4

to hire

∞ 1.4

to take on

405 2.8

Surface Forms

Etymology