hire
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: hīr
ipa: /haɪə/
ipa: /haɪɹ/
note: Indic, rhotic
ipa: /haj(ə)r/
note: Indic, non-rhotic
ipa: /hajə/
enpr: hīʹər
ipa: /ˈhaɪ.ə/
ipa: /ˈhaɪ.ɚ/
homophone: higher (some speakers)
rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
Forms: form: hires
form: hiring
form: hired
form: hired
Etymology: From Middle English hiren, hyren, from Old English hȳrian (“to hire”), from the noun (see above). Compare West Frisian hiere (“to rent, lease”), Dutch huren (“to rent, lease”), Low German hüren (“to rent”), Danish hyre (“to hire”), Swedish hyra (“to hire”).
Eclipsed Middle English souden (“to hire, employ, enlist”), borrowed from Old French souder, soudre, souldre (“to take into employ, pay”); see English sold (“salary, military pay”).
Senses: examples: text: We hired a car for two weeks because ours had broken down.
text: “[…] 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.”
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
synonyms: rent
glosses: To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Economy”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:
synonyms: rent
glosses: To occupy premises in exchange for rent.
examples: text: The company had problems when it tried to hire more skilled workers.
text: 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.
ref: 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:
glosses: To employ; to obtain the services of (a person) in exchange for remuneration; to give someone a job.
examples: text: They hired themselves out as day laborers.  They hired out their basement for Inauguration week.
glosses: To exchange the services of for remuneration.
examples: text: After waiting two years for her husband to finish the tiling, she decided to hire it done.
glosses: To accomplish by paying for services.
examples: text: They hired out as day laborers.
glosses: To accept employment.
examples: text: They hired a milkshake.
glosses: (neologism) (in the Jobs-to-be-Done Theory) To buy something in order for it to perform a function, to do a job
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: acquihire
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: dehire
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: gun-for-hire
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: hirable
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: hired gun
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: hired hand
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: hiree
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: hireless
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: hirer
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: hireworthy
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: mishire
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: outhire
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: overhire
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: prehire
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: rehire
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: unhire
sense: Terms derived from hire (verb)
word: unhired
Related terms: rent