different between employ vs spend

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English spenden, from Old English spendan (attested especially in compounds ?spendan (“to spend”), forspendan (“to use up, consume”)), from Proto-West Germanic *spend?n (“to spend”), borrowed from Latin expendere (“to weigh out”). Doublet of expend. Cognate with Old High German spent?n (“to consume, use, spend”) (whence German spenden (“to donate, provide”)), Middle Dutch spenden (“to spend, dedicate”), Old Icelandic spenna (“to spend”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

spend (third-person singular simple present spends, present participle spending, simple past and past participle spent)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To pay out (money).
2. To bestow; to employ; often with on or upon.

   • I […] am never loath / To spend my judgment.

3. (dated) To squander.

4. To exhaust, to wear out.

   • their bodies spent with long labour and thirst

5. To consume, to use up (time).
   • 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond

     During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant […]

   • 2012, Christoper Zara, Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and Winehouse, the Twisted Secrets of the World's Most Creative Minds, part 1, chapter 1, 26:

     Clara's father, a trollish ne'er-do-well who spent most of his time in brothels and saloons, would disappear for days and weeks at a stretch, leaving Clara and her mother to fend for themselves.
6. (dated, transitive, intransitive) To have an orgasm; to ejaculate sexually.

7. (intransitive) To waste or wear away; to be consumed.
8. To be diffused; to spread.
9. (mining) To break ground; to continue working.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

spend (countable and uncountable, plural spends)

1. Amount of money spent (during a period); expenditure.

   I’m sorry, boss, but the advertising spend exceeded the budget again this month.

2. (in the plural) Expenditures; money or pocket money.
3. Discharged semen.
4. Vaginal discharge.

Translations

Anagrams

• pends