hire
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English hire, hyre, here, hure, from Old English hȳr (“employment for wages; pay for service; interest on money lent”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūʀiju (“payment”), from the verb *hūʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *hūzijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *kewHs- or *kweHs-. Compare Hittite 𒆪𒊭𒀭 (kuššan-, “fee, pay, wages, price”).
Cognate with West Frisian hier (“hire”), Dutch huur (“lease, rental”), German Low German Hüür (“lease, rental”).
Inflected forms:
form: hires
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: hires
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: hiring
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: hired
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: hired
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: We pair up each of our new hires with one of our original hires.
Employment statistics, the other key indicator of Diversity & Inclusion performance, shows that almost 30% of new Southeastern hires are women.
gloss: The state of being hired, or having a job; employment.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: When my grandfather retired, he had over twenty mechanics in his hire.
gloss: Payment for the temporary use of something.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: The sign offered pedalos on hire.
gloss: Reward.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
uncountable
examples: 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?
I have five hundred crovvns, / The thrifty hire I ſav'd under your father […]
The labourer is worthy of his hire.
I haue ſeene a pardon giuen to a man vpon the gallovves, but vvho ſo emboldeneth himſelfe thereuypon, perhaps the rope may be his hire: it is not good to put it vpon the Pſalme of Miſerere, and the neck-verſe, for ſometime he prooues no clarke.
gloss: To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.
pos: verb
tags: Australia
UK
transitive
examples: We hired a car for two weeks because ours had broken down.
“[…] 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.”
gloss: To occupy premises in exchange for rent.
pos: verb
tags: UK
transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To employ; to obtain the services of (a person) in exchange for remuneration; to give someone a job.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The company had problems when it tried to hire more skilled workers.
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.
gloss: To exchange the services of for remuneration.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: They hired themselves out as day laborers.  They hired out their basement for Inauguration week.
gloss: To accomplish by paying for services.
pos: verb
tags: UK
transitive
examples: After waiting two years for her husband to finish the tiling, she decided to hire it done.
gloss: To accept employment.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: They hired out as day laborers.
gloss: (neologism) (in the Jobs-to-be-Done Theory) To buy something in order for it to perform a function, to do a job
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: They hired a milkshake.
Antonyms: fire
Related words: rent
Derived words: car hire
DEI hire
diversity hire
dry hire
e-hire
hire car
hireling
hireman
hire out
hire purchase
hire system
hireworthy
murder-for-hire
on hire
spot hire
the laborer is worthy of his hire
the labourer is worthy of his hire
acquihire
dehire
gun-for-hire
hirable
hired gun
hired hand
hiree
hireless
hirer
mishire
outhire
overhire
prehire
rehire
unhire
unhired
Translations: