Adjacent Words

Employment definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

EMPLOY'MENT, n. The act of employing or using.
1. Occupation; business; that which engages the head or hands; as agricultural employments; mechanical employments. Men, whose employment is to make sport and amusement for others, are always despised.
2. Office; public business or trust; agency or service for another or for the public. The secretary of the treasury has a laborious and responsible employment. He is in the employment of government.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the state of being employed or having a job; "they are looking for employment"; "he was in the employ of the city" [syn: employment, employ] [ant: unemployment]
2: the occupation for which you are paid; "he is looking for employment"; "a lot of people are out of work" [syn: employment, work]
3: the act of giving someone a job [syn: employment, engagement]
4: the act of using; "he warned against the use of narcotic drugs"; "skilled in the utilization of computers" [syn: use, usage, utilization, utilisation, employment, exercise]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 15th century 1. use, purpose 2. a. activity in which one engages or is employed <seeking gainful employment> b. an instance of such activity 3. the act of employing ; the state of being employed <employment of a pen in sketching> Synonyms: see work

U.S. Military Dictionary

The strategic, operational, or tactical use of forces. (JP 5-0)

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 the act of employing or the state of being employed. 2 a person's regular trade or profession. Phrases and idioms: employment agency a business that finds employers or employees for those seeking them. employment office (formerly employment exchange) Brit. any of a number of government offices concerned with advising and finding work for the unemployed.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Employment Em*ploy"ment, n. 1. The act of employing or using; also, the state of being employed. 2. That which engages or occupies; that which consumes time or attention; office or post of business; service; as, agricultural employments; mechanical employments; public employments; in the employment of government. Cares are employments, and without employ The soul is on a rack. --Young. Syn: Work; business; occupation; vocation; calling; office; service; commission; trade; profession.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Employment is the fact of having a paid job. She was unable to find employment... He regularly drove from his home to his place of employment. 2. Employment is the fact of employing someone. ...the employment of children under nine. 3. Employment is the work that is available in a country or area. ...economic policies designed to secure full employment. ? unemployment

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Business, occupation, engagement, pursuit, vocation, avocation, calling, profession, trade, craft, employ. 2. Service, agency, office, employ. 3. Employing, use, application. 4. Busy state, being busied, occupation, engrossment.

Moby Thesaurus

act, acting, action, active use, activism, activities, activity, affair, affairs, appliance, application, appointment, assignment, attendance, bag, behavior, berth, bespeaking, billet, booking, briefing, business, calling, commerce, concern, concernment, consumption, craft, dirty work, disposition, doing, donkeywork, drudgery, employ, engagement, engaging, enlistment, enrollment, enterprise, exercise, exercising, exertion, exploitation, fag, fatigue, function, functioning, gig, good use, grind, handiwork, handling, handwork, hard usage, hard use, hire, hiring, ill use, implementation, incumbency, industry, interest, job, labor, lick, lick of work, line, livelihood, lookout, management, manipulation, manual labor, matter, metier, ministration, ministry, mission, misuse, moil, moonlighting, movements, occupation, office, opening, operation, operations, peonage, place, play, position, post, practice, praxis, preengagement, profession, purpose, pursuit, racket, rat race, recruitment, reservation, retaining, retainment, rough usage, scut work, second job, serfdom, service, servitium, servitorship, servitude, situation, skill, slavery, spadework, station, stroke, stroke of work, sweat, swing, taking on, task, tendance, tenure, thing, tiresome work, toil, trade, travail, treadmill, undertaking, usage, use, using, using up, utilization, vacancy, vocation, work, working, workings, wrong use