employ

employ — verb

1. to pay someone to do work for you, typically as a regular worker or employee

1.verbtransitiveA2
Definition

to pay someone to do work for you, typically as a regular worker or employee

Example

The restaurant employs twenty kitchen staff and ten waiters.

employ + person(s) + as [role group]

Shanti was employed as a graphic designer at a small publishing company.

passive: be employed as [role]

Common collocations
  • employ workers
  • employ staff
  • employ someone as
  • employ someone to do
Synonyms
  • hire

    less formal; common in everyday speech for both short-term and long-term work

  • take on

    phrasal verb, informal; implies adding someone to an existing team

  • recruit

    more formal; suggests actively seeking and selecting candidates

  • engage

    very formal; used for contracting specialist services

Antonyms
  • fire

    informal; to end someone's employment

  • dismiss

    formal; to remove someone from a job

  • lay off

    to end employment due to lack of work, not poor performance

Grammar Patterns

employ + someone

employ + someone + as + role

employ + someone + to + infinitive

Usage Note

In casual conversation, 'hire' is more common than 'employ'. This sense of 'employ' is typical in formal writing, job advertisements, and company policies.

Common Mistakes

The company employed me a job.
The company employed me as a receptionist.
'employ' takes a person as its direct object, not the job itself.
I employed as a waiter last summer.
I was employed as a waiter last summer.
Use the passive voice when the person receiving the job is the subject.

2. to deliberately use a particular tool, method, or ability to achieve a result

2.verbtransitiveB1
Definition

to deliberately use a particular tool, method, or ability to achieve a result

Example

The engineers employed a new filtration system to treat the polluted water.

employ + method/tool + to + infinitive

Renata employed simple vocabulary so her young students could follow the lesson.

Common collocations
  • employ a strategy
  • employ a technique
  • employ a method
  • employ force
  • employ technology
Synonyms
  • use

    neutral and far more common; appropriate for all registers

  • utilize

    very formal; often sounds overly technical in everyday writing

  • make use of

    slightly more formal than 'use'; idiomatic and natural in writing

Antonyms
  • neglect

    to fail to use something beneficial

  • abandon

    to stop using a method or approach

Grammar Patterns

employ + something

employ + something + to + infinitive

employ + something + as + noun

Usage Note

More formal than 'use'. The object is typically an abstract or technical item — a strategy, technique, method, or tool — not an everyday physical object. 'Can I employ your phone?' would sound unnatural.

Common Mistakes

She employed a spoon to eat the soup.
She used a spoon to eat the soup.
'employ' is too formal for ordinary household objects.
The team employed a new player.
The team hired / brought in a new player.
'employ' in this sense means 'use', not 'hire a person'.

3. to use a period of time to do a particular activity, especially when the time is

3.verbtransitiveB2
Definition

to use a period of time to do a particular activity, especially when the time is used with care or purpose

Example

The retired professor employed her mornings writing letters to old friends.

employ + time + [gerund]

The children were employed in painting a mural for the school library.

passive: be employed in + [gerund]

Common collocations
  • employ one's time
  • employ one's mornings/afternoons/days
  • be employed in
Synonyms
  • spend

    neutral and very common; the everyday alternative to this sense

  • devote

    implies dedicated effort and care

Grammar Patterns

be employed in + doing something

employ + time + [gerund]

Usage Note

Almost always appears in the passive form 'be employed in' followed by a gerund, or with a possessive time expression. This sense is rare in everyday conversation — 'spend' is the neutral alternative.

Common Mistakes

I employed three hours studying.
I employed my afternoons practising the violin.
'employ' with time needs a possessive or determiner ('my mornings', 'the weekend'), not a bare duration.
She employed the day by reading.
She employed the day reading.
Use the gerund directly, not 'by + gerund'.
Idioms

be employed (in) doing something

idiom

A person uses their time to do a particular activity.

Maya was employed in writing her final report all afternoon.

Are you employed in planning the company picnic this year?

employ — noun

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

Hire is the closest synonym but tends to be less formal and often implies a shorter-term or more transactional arrangement — you hire a plumber for a day or hire a new salesperson after an interview. Recruit suggests actively seeking out candidates, often for specialized or competitive positions, carrying a sense of effort and strategy. Take on is an informal phrasal verb that implies adding someone to an existing team or workload, often with the nuance of accepting extra responsibility. Engage is the most formal of the four, used in legal, military, or contractual contexts — a law firm may engage a specialist consultant for a single case. For most everyday work contexts, 'hire' and 'employ' are interchangeable, with 'hire' more common in speech and 'employ' more common in formal or written contexts.

hire ↗recruit ↗take on ↗engage ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • in the employ of
  • employ someone as
  • employ something for

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

The word 'employ' entered English from Old French 'employer', which came from Latin 'implicare' — a combination of 'in-' (in) and 'plicare' (to fold). The Latin meaning was 'to involve' or 'to enfold'. Over time the sense shifted from 'involve' to 'apply' to 'use', and finally to 'pay someone for work'. The noun form developed later from the verb, and the more common noun 'employment' has largely replaced 'employ' in everyday speech.