• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: hīr, hīʹər, IPA: /haɪə/, /ˈhaɪ.ə/
• (General American) enPR: hīr, hīʹər, IPA: /haɪɹ/, /ˈhaɪ.ɚ/

From Middle English hire, hyre, here, hure, from Old English hȳr, from Proto-West Germanic *hūʀiju, from the verb *hūʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *hūzijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *kewHs-.

Cognate with Western Frisian hier, Dutch huur, nds-de Hüür.

hire

1. (countable) A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort.

   We pair up each of our new hires with one of our original hires.

2. (uncountable) The state of being hired, or having a job; employment.

   Synonyms: employ

   When my grandfather retired, he had over twenty mechanics in his hire.

3. (uncountable) Payment for the temporary use of something.

   The sign offered pedalos on hire.

4. (uncountable, obsolete) Reward.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:

     I vvill him reaue of armes, the victors hire, / And of that ſhield, more vvorthy of good knight; / For vvhy ſhould a dead dog be deckt in armour bright?

   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene iii], lines 682–683:

     I have five hundred crovvns, / The thrifty hire I ſav'd under your father […]

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Luke 10:7 ↗:

     The labourer is worthy of his hire.

• German: unter Vertrag
• Portuguese: emprego
• Russian: наём
• Spanish: alquiler

• German: Hilfsarbeiter, Saisonarbeiter
• Portuguese: contratado
• Spanish: empleado

From Middle English hiren, hyren, from Old English hȳrian, from the noun (see above).

Eclipsed Middle English souden (“to hire, employ, enlist”), borrowed from Old French souder, soudre, souldre; see English sold (“salary, military pay”).

hire (hires, present participle hiring; simple past and past participle hired)

1. (transitive) To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.

   Synonyms: rent

   We hired a car for two weeks because ours had broken down.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:

     “ […] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”

2. (transitive) To occupy premises in exchange for rent.

   Synonyms: rent

   • 1854 August 8, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Economy”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC ↗:

     I do not mean to insist here on the disadvantage of hiring compared with owning, but it is evident that the savage owns his shelter because it costs so little, while the civilized man hires his commonly because he cannot afford to own it; nor can he, in the long run, any better afford to hire.

3. (transitive) To employ; to obtain the services of (a person) in exchange for remuneration; to give someone a job.

   The company had problems when it tried to hire more skilled workers.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:

     The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.

4. (transitive) To exchange the services of for remuneration.

   They hired themselves out as day laborers.  They hired out their basement for Inauguration week.

5. (transitive) To accomplish by paying for services.

   After waiting two years for her husband to finish the tiling, she decided to hire it done.

6. (intransitive) To accept employment.

   They hired out as day laborers.

7. (transitive) (neologism) (in the Jobs-to-be-Done Theory) To buy something in order for it to perform a function, to do a job

   They hired a milkshake.

• (antonym(s) of “to employ”): fire

• French: louer
• German: mieten, heuern
• Italian: assoldare, noleggiare
• Portuguese: contratar, alugar
• Russian: брать напрокат

• French: embaucher, employer, recruter, engager
• German: anwerben, anstellen, einstellen, anheuern (naut.)
• Italian: impiegare, ingaggiare, assumere
• Portuguese: contratar, empregar
• Russian: нанима́ть
• Spanish: contratar

• German: vermieten, verdingen (oneself, dated)

• German: machen lassen (coll.)

• German: anheuern (naut.), sich verdingen (dated)

• As a Dutch - and German - surname, Americanized from Heier, Heyer.
• As an English surname, variant of Heare.
• As an Irish - surname, variant of Hare.

1. Surname.