different between assign vs employ

English

Etymology

From Middle English assignen, from Old French assigner, asigner, from Latin assign?, from ad- + sign? (“mark, sign”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??sa?n/
• Hyphenation: as?sign
• Rhymes: -a?n

Verb

assign (third-person singular simple present assigns, present participle assigning, simple past and past participle assigned)

1. (transitive) To designate or set apart something for some purpose.

2. (transitive) To appoint or select someone for some office.

3. (transitive) To allot or give something as a task.
   • Captain Edward Carlisle […] felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, […]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.

4. (transitive) To attribute or sort something into categories.
5. (transitive, law) To transfer property, a legal right, etc., from one person to another.
6. (transitive, programming) To give (a value) to a variable.

Synonyms

• (set apart something for some purpose): allocate, earmark; see also Thesaurus:set apart
• (transfer property): consign, convey; see also Thesaurus:transfer

Derived terms

• assignment
• assignable
• assignation

Translations

Noun

assign (plural assigns)

1. An assignee.
2. (obsolete) A thing relating or belonging to something else; an appurtenance.
3. (obsolete) An assignment or appointment.
4. (obsolete) A design or purpose.

English

Alternative forms

• imploy (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French employer, from Latin implicare (“to infold, involve, engage”), from in (“in”) + plicare (“to fold”). Compare imply and implicate, which are doublets of employ .

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?pl??/, /?m?pl??/

• Rhymes: -??

Noun

employ (plural employs)

1. The state of being an employee; employment.
2. (obsolete) The act of employing someone or making use of something; employment.

Verb

employ (third-person singular simple present employs, present participle employing, simple past and past participle employed)

1. To hire (somebody for work or a job).
   • 1668 July 3rd, James Dalrymple, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Hou?toun” in The Deci?ions of the Lords of Council & Se??ion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 547

     Andrew Hou?toun and Adam Mu?het, being Tack?men of the Excize, did Imploy Thomas Rue to be their Collector, and gave him a Sallary of 30. pound Sterling for a year.
2. To use (somebody for a job, or something for a task).
   • 1598, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act 1, Scene iii:

     Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you / against the general enemy Ottoman.
3. To make busy.
   • 1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act 2, Scene viii:

     Let it not enter in your mind of love: / Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts / to courtship and such fair ostents of love / as shall conveniently become you there

Synonyms

• (to give someone work): hire
• (to put into use): apply, use, utilize

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• employ in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• employ in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• employ at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• polemy