occupy
verbUK /ˈɒkjʊpaɪ/ · US /ˈɑkjəpaɪ/
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.
11 senses
- 1To fill.
- 2To possess or use the time or capacity of; to engage the…
- 3To fill or hold (an official position or role).
- 4To hold the attention of.
- 5To fill space.
- 6To live or reside in.
- 7To have, or to have taken, possession or control of (a…
- 8To place the theodolite or total station at (a point).
- 9To have sexual intercourse with.
- 10To do business in; to busy oneself with.
- 11To use; to expend; to make use of.
› To take or use.
1
Of time To fill.
- 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.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
2
Of time To possess or use the time or capacity of; to engage the service of.
- The film occupied me for three hours.
- I occupy myself with gardening for a few hours every day.
3
Of time To fill or hold (an official position or role).
- I occupy the post of deputy cat catcher.
4
Of time To hold the attention of.
- I occupied her friend while he made his proposal.
› To take or use space.
5
To fill space.
- The historic mansion occupied two city blocks.
6
To live or reside in.
- The better apartments were already occupied.1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC:
- 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[…]1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii:
7
Government, Military, Politics, War To have, or to have taken, possession or control of (a territory).
- 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, […]1940, The China monthly review, volumes 94-95, page 370:
- 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.1975, Esmé Cecil Wingfield-Stratford, King Charles and King Pym, 1637-1643, page 330:
3 more examples
- 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.1983, Arthur Keppel-Jones, Rhodes and Rhodesia: The White Conquest of Zimbabwe, 1884-1902, page 462:
- Germany occupied France for three years while France struggled to make payments that were a condition of surrender.1991, Werner Spies, John William Gabriel, Max Ernst collages: the invention of the surrealist universe, page 333:
- 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.2006, John Michael Francis, Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, page 496:
9
Obsolete To have sexual intercourse with.
- 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 sorted1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:
- 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.
10
Obsolete To do business in; to busy oneself with.
- All the ships of the sea, with their mariners, were in thee to occupy the merchandise.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ezekiel 27:9:
- not able to occupy their old crafts1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin), 1516
11
Obsolete To use; to expend; to make use of.
- all the gold that was occupied for the work1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 38:24:
- They occupy not money themselves.1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin), 1516
- Synonyms
- employ, busy, coitize, go to bed with, sleep with
- Derived terms
- cooccupy, deoccupy, misoccupy, multioccupy, nonoccupying, occupiable, occupier, occupy oneself, preoccupy, reoccupy
- Related terms
- occupant, occupation