occupy
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: geography
government
military
natural-sciences
politics
surveying
war
Etymology: From Middle English occupien, occupyen, borrowed from Old French occuper, from Latin occupāre (“to take possession of, seize, occupy, take up, employ”), from ob (“to, on”) + capiō (“to take”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to seize, grab”). Doublet of occupate, now obsolete.
Inflected forms:
form: occupies
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: occupying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: occupied
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: occupied
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: occupy
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: occupy
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: occupied
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: occupy
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: occupiest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: occupied
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: occupies
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: occupieth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: occupied
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: occupy
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: occupied
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: occupy
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: occupied
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: occupy
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: occupying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: occupied
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
Senses:
gloss: To take or use.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The film occupied three hours of my time.
I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.
gloss: To take or use.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The film occupied me for three hours.
I occupy myself with gardening for a few hours every day.
gloss: To take or use.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I occupy the post of deputy cat catcher.
gloss: To take or use.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I occupied her friend while he made his proposal.
gloss: To take or use space.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The historic mansion occupied two city blocks.
gloss: To take or use space.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The better apartments were already occupied.
With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get[…]
gloss: To take or use space.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The Japanese can occupy but cannot hold, and what they can hold they cannot hold long, was the opinion of General Pai Chung-hsi, Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese Army, […]
Rupert, with his usual untamable energy, was scouring the country — but at first in the wrong direction, that of Aylesbury, another keypoint in the outer ring of Oxford defences, which he occupied but could not hold.
One of the rebel marksmen, who had taken up position on a boulder, was knocked off it by the recoil of his weapon every time he fired. Again the attack achieved nothing. Positions were occupied, but could not be held.
Germany occupied France for three years while France struggled to make payments that were a condition of surrender.
Spain occupied, but could not populate, and its failure to expand Florida led Britain to consider the peninsula a logical extension of its colonial holdings.
gloss: To take or use space.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To have sexual intercourse with.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: God's light, these villains will make the word as odious as the word 'occupy;' which was an excellent good word before it was ill sorted
1867, Robert Nares A Glossary
OCCUPY, [sensu obsc.] To possess, or enjoy.
These villains will make the word captain, as odious as the word occupy. 2 Hen. IV, ii, 4.
Groyne, come of age, his state sold out of hand
For 's whore; Groyne still doth occupy his land. B. Jons. Epigr., 117.
Many, out of their own obscene apprehensions, refuse proper and fit words, as occupy, nature, and the like. Ibid., Discoveries, vol. vii, p. 119.
It is so used also in Rowley's New Wonder, Anc. Dr., v, 278.
gloss: To do business in; to busy oneself with.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: All the ships of the sea, with their mariners, were in thee to occupy the merchandise.
not able to occupy their old crafts
gloss: To use; to expend; to make use of.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: all the gold that was occupied for the work
They occupy not money themselves.
Synonyms: go to bed with
sleep with
Related words: occupant
occupation
Derived words: cooccupy
deoccupy
misoccupy
multioccupy
nonoccupying
occupiable
occupier
occupy oneself
preoccupy
reoccupy
Translations: