different between contain vs occupy

English

Etymology

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French contenir, from Latin continere (“to hold or keep together, comprise, contain”), combined form of con- (“together”) + tene? (“to hold”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?n-t?n?, IPA^(key): /k?n?te?n/
• Rhymes: -e?n
• Hyphenation: con?tain

Verb

contain (third-person singular simple present contains, present participle containing, simple past and past participle contained)

1. (transitive) To hold inside.
2. (transitive) To include as a part.
3. (transitive) To put constraint upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds.

   • [The king's] only Person is oftentimes instead of an Army, to contain the unruly People from a thousand evil Occasions.
4. (mathematics, of a set etc., transitive) To have as an element or subset.

5. (obsolete, intransitive) To restrain desire; to live in continence or chastity.

   • But if they cannot contain, let them marry.

Synonyms

• (hold inside): enclose, inhold
• (include as part): comprise, embody, incorporate, inhold
• (limit by restraint): control, curb, repress, restrain, restrict, stifle; See also Thesaurus:curb

Antonyms

• (include as part): exclude, omit
• (limit by restraint): release, vent

Usage notes

• This is generally a stative verb that rarely takes the continuous inflection. See Category:English stative verbs

Related terms

• container
• containable
• containment
• content
• continence

Translations

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• actinon, cantion

English

Etymology

From Middle English occupien, occupyen, borrowed from Old French occuper, from Latin occup?re (“to take possession of, seize, occupy, take up, employ”), from ob (“to, on”) + capi? (“to take”). Doublet of occupate, now obsolete.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??kj?pa?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??kj?pa?/
• Hyphenation: oc?cu?py

Verb

occupy (third-person singular simple present occupies, present participle occupying, simple past and past participle occupied)

1. (transitive, of time) To take or use.
   1. To fill.
   2. To possess or use the time or capacity of; to engage the service of.

   3. To fill or hold (an official position or role).

   4. To hold the attention of.

2. (transitive) To take or use space.
   1. To fill space.

   2. To live or reside in.

      • The better apartments were already occupied.
   3. (military) To have, or to have taken, possession or control of (a territory).
      • 1940, in The China monthly review, volumes 94-95, page 370 [1]:

        The Japanese can occupy but cannot hold, and what they can hold they cannot hold long, was the opinion of General Pai Chung-hsi, Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese Army, […]

      • 1975, Esmé Cecil Wingfield-Stratford, King Charles and King Pym, 1637-1643, page 330 [2]:

        Rupert, with his usual untamable energy, was scouring the country — but at first in the wrong direction, that of Aylesbury, another keypoint in the outer ring of Oxford defences, which he occupied but could not hold.

      • 1983, Arthur Keppel-Jones, Rhodes and Rhodesia: The White Conquest of Zimbabwe, 1884-1902, page 462:

        One of the rebel marksmen, who had taken up position on a boulder, was knocked off it by the recoil of his weapon every time he fired. Again the attack achieved nothing. Positions were occupied, but could not be held.

      • 1991, Werner Spies, John William Gabriel, Max Ernst collages: the invention of the surrealist universe, page 333:

        Germany occupied France for three years while France struggled to make payments that were a condition of surrender.

      • 2006, John Michael Francis, Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, page 496:

        Spain occupied, but could not populate, and its failure to expand Florida led Britain to consider the peninsula a logical extension of its colonial holdings.

   4. (surveying) To place the theodolite or total station at (a point).
3. (transitive, obsolete) To have sexual intercourse with.
   • 1590s, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, II.iv

     God's light, these villains will make the word as odious as the word 'occupy;' which was an excellent good word before it was ill sorted

   • 1867, Robert Nares A Glossary

     OCCUPY, [sensu obsc.] To possess, or enjoy.

     These villains will make the word captain, as odious as the word occupy. 2 Hen. IV, ii, 4.

     Groyne, come of age, his state sold out of hand

     For 's whore; Groyne still doth occupy his land. B. Jons. Epigr., 117.

     Many, out of their own obscene apprehensions, refuse proper and fit words, as occupy, nature, and the like. Ibid., Discoveries, vol. vii, p. 119.

     It is so used also in Rowley's New Wonder, Anc. Dr., v, 278.

4. (obsolete) To do business in; to busy oneself with.

   • All the ships of the sea, with their mariners, were in thee to occupy the merchandise.

   • 1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin), 1516

     not able to occupy their old crafts

5. (obsolete) To use; to expend; to make use of.

   • all the gold that was occupied for the work

   • 1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin), 1516

     They occupy not money themselves.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (to possess or use the time or capacity of): employ, busy
• (to have sexual intercourse with): coitize, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

Derived terms

• occupier

Related terms

• occupant
• occupation

Translations

See also

• Appendix:American Dialect Society words of the year

References

• occupy at OneLook Dictionary Search
• occupy in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
• occupy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• occupy in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.