English
employment
Etymology

From employ (itself from Middle French employer, from Middle French empleier, from Latin implicō, itself from in- + plicō ("fold")) + -ment.

Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ɪmˈplɔɪmənt/, /ɛmˈplɔɪmənt/
Noun

employment

  1. The occupation or work for which one is used, and often paid.
    • 1893 February (date written), Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, “Particulars of the Life of Samuel Pepys”, in Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, edited by Henry B. Wheatley, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume I, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, →OCLC ↗, page xxvii ↗:
      [I]t is certaine no man sees more of the Navye's Transactions than himselfe [the Clerk of the Acts], and possibly may speak as much to the project if required, or else he is a blockhead, and not fitt for that imployment.
  2. The act of employing.
    The personnel director handled the whole employment procedure
  3. The state of being employed.
    • a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, “Cornwall”, in The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC ↗, page 202 ↗:
      […] King Henry [VIII] full fraught all thoſe vvith vvealth and revvards, vvhom he retained in his imployment.
    • 1853 November–December, Herman Melville, “Bartleby”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC ↗:
      At the period just preceding the advent of Bartleby, I had two persons as copyists in my employment, and a promising lad as an office-boy.
  4. A purpose, a use.
  5. An activity to which one devotes time.
  6. (economics) The number or percentage of people at work.
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