Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to hire out

to hire out

5 3.9
Rent something you own or your services to someone for a short time
  • phrasal verb
  • UK
translation icon : alquilar
  • I decided to hire out my services as a tutor to earn some extra money.
  • hire out to local families
  • governments hire out

Examples

  • Less skilled soldiers hired themselves out as common laborers.

    Academic text (2011)

  • The camp commander hired the prisoners out to local farmers.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Or we could hire ourselves out to Uncle Bob.

    War Horse (2011)

  • "To whom shall I hire myself out?

    Pollock (2000)

  • We can hire out as a team.

    The Man from Snowy River (1982)

  • You get hired out yet?

    Stillwater (2021)

  • Governments hire out their internal or external security functions to private foreign or domestic providers.

    Academic text (2001)

  • You might hire out as a dinner-table conversationalist.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Time not spent at her job could be money not earned, so she chooses to hire out services such as utilizing a cleaning lady.

    Blog text (32)

  • When the weather permitted, some of the Mississippi Choctaw hired themselves out to local farmers to pick cotton and to perform other chores.

    Academic text (1990)

Synonyms

to rent out
vsto hire out
50 2.1

Allow someone to use a room or building for money

covers services and things provided temporarily for payment

Antonyms

to refuse
716 1.7

To say no to a request or offer

to withhold
210 5.1

Refuse to give something someone wants or needs

How Long

to sell
∞ 1.0
to hire out
  • UK
5 3.9
to lend
262 1.0

Surface Forms

hire out infinitive
hired out past
hired out past participle
hiring out present participle
hires out third person singular

Morphology

hire + out

The meaning is directly compositional: 'hire' (to obtain/use temporarily or to employ) combined with the particle 'out' (indicating away/to others) yields 'to hire out' = to make available for hire to other people (rent out). This particle+verb pattern is common and mirrors cross-linguistic constructions, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

The phrasal verb hire out shows a clear picture: hire (to get paid) and out (to send away). One popular story says people would send tools or their services 'out' to others for money, so today hire out means 'to let someone use something or your services for a short time'.