different between expend vs employ

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin expend? (“I weigh; I pay out”). Doublet of spend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?sp?nd/, /?k?sp?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

expend (third-person singular simple present expends, present participle expending, simple past and past participle expended)

1. (transitive) to consume, exhaust (some resource)
   • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, King Henry VI Part 2, act 3, scene 1:

     If my death might make this island happy […]

     I would expend it with all willingness.

2. (transitive, rare, of money) to spend, disburse

Related terms

• expenditure
• expense
• expensive

Translations

See also

• expent

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