employ meaning
- Put into service; make work or employ for a particular purpose or for its inherent or natural purpose
- use, utilize, utilise [Brit], apply - Engage or hire for work
"How many people has she employed?"
- hire, engage
- The state of being employed or having a job
"he was in the employ of the city"
- employment
Derived forms: employing, employed, employs
See also: employee, employer, employment
Type of: state
Encyclopedia: Employ
[Business]
verb, noun
■ verb [+ obj]
1
to give sb a job to do for payment:
How many people does the company employ?
For the past three years he has been employed as a systems analyst.
The number of people employed in manufacturing has fallen.
IT workers employed to install new computer systems
2 (formal)
to use sth such as a skill, method, etc. for a particular purpose:
the accounting practices employed by large companies
VOCABULARY BUILDING
Employing people
• to recruit sb - Many businesses are having trouble recruiting workers with adequate skills.
• to hire sb (especially AmE) - If you want to keep growing, hire more salespeople.
• to take on sb - She was taken on as a trainee last year.
• to appoint sb - A new head of the Environment Agency was appointed last year.
• to headhunt sb - He was headhunted by a major US law firm.
See note at DISMISS
■ noun
IDIOMS
in sb's employ; in the employ of sb (formal)
working for sb; employed by sb:
How long has she been in your employ?
- pre-employ: (employ) vt(1)
- employ so as sth: [American slang]to ...
- employ so for sth: [American slang]to ...
Examples
More: Next- i left their employ after an argument.
- you could employ your spare time better.
- it then occurred to her to employ him in reading.
- the agent was in the employ of a foreign country.
- they employ a model which they call a cell model.
