Adjacent Words

Occupation definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

OCCUPA'TION, n. [L. occupatio.]
1. The act of taking possession.
2. Possession; a holding or keeping; tenure; use; as lands in the occupation of AB.
3. That which engages the time and attention; employment; business. He devotes to study all the time that his other occupations will permit.
4. The principal business of one's life; vocation; calling; trade; the business which a man follows to procure a living or obtain wealth. Agriculture, manufactures and commerce furnish the most general occupations of life. Painting, statuary, music, are agreeable occupations. Men not engaged in some useful occupation commonly fall into vicious courses.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the principal activity in your life that you do to earn money; "he's not in my line of business" [syn: occupation, business, job, line of work, line]
2: the control of a country by military forces of a foreign power [syn: occupation, military control]
3: any activity that occupies a person's attention; "he missed the bell in his occupation with the computer game"
4: the act of occupying or taking possession of a building; "occupation of a building without a certificate of occupancy is illegal" [syn: occupation, occupancy, moving in]
5: the period of time during which a place or position or nation is occupied; "during the German occupation of Paris"

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English occupacioun, from Anglo-French occupaciun, from Latin occupation-, occupatio, from occupare Date: 14th century 1. a. an activity in which one engages <pursuing pleasure has been his major occupation> b. the principal business of one's life ; vocation 2. a. the possession, use, or settlement of land ; occupancy b. the holding of an office or position 3. a. the act or process of taking possession of a place or area ; seizure b. the holding and control of an area by a foreign military force c. the military force occupying a country or the policies carried out by it Synonyms: see work • occupational adjective • occupationally adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 what occupies one; a means of passing one's time. 2 a person's temporary or regular employment; a business, calling, or pursuit. 3 the act of occupying or state of being occupied. 4 a the act of taking or holding possession of (a country, district, etc.) by military force. b the state or time of this. 5 tenure, occupancy. 6 (attrib.) for the sole use of the occupiers of the land concerned (occupation road). Etymology: ME f. AF ocupacioun, OF occupation f. L occupatio -onis (as OCCUPY)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Occupation Oc`cu*pa"tion, n. [L. occupatio: cf.F. occupation.] 1. The act or process of occupying or taking possession; actual possession and control; the state of being occupied; a holding or keeping; tenure; use; as, the occupation of lands by a tenant. 2. That which occupies or engages the time and attention; the principal business of one's life; vocation; employment; calling; trade. Absence of occupation is not rest. --Cowper. Occupation bridge (Engin.), a bridge connecting the parts of an estate separated by a railroad, a canal, or an ordinary road. Syn: Occupancy; possession; tenure; use; employment; avocation; engagement; vocation; calling; office; trade; profession.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(occupations) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Your occupation is your job or profession. I suppose I was looking for an occupation which was going to be an adventure... Occupation: administrative assistant. N-COUNT 2. An occupation is something that you spend time doing, either for pleasure or because it needs to be done. Parachuting is a dangerous occupation. N-COUNT 3. The occupation of a country happens when it is entered and controlled by a foreign army. ...the deportation of Jews from Paris during the German occupation.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Possession, holding tenure, use, occupancy. 2. Business, engagement, employment. 3. Employment, business, calling, vocation, avocation, profession, pursuit, trade, craft, walk of life.

Moby Thesaurus

abiding, abode, act, acting, action, activism, activities, activity, adoption, adverse possession, affair, affairs, agency, alodium, appointment, appropriation, arrogation, art, assumption, bag, behavior, bondage, burgage, business, calling, career, career building, careerism, claim, cohabitation, colonization, colony, commerce, commorancy, concern, concernment, conduct, conquest, control, craft, de facto, de jure, dependency, derivative title, direction, doing, driving, dwelling, employ, employment, enslavement, enterprise, execution, exercise, fee fief, fee position, fee simple, fee simple absolute, fee simple conditional, fee simple defeasible, fee simple determinable, fee tail, feodum, feud, fiefdom, field, frankalmoign, free socage, freehold, function, functioning, game, gavelkind, habitancy, habitation, handicraft, handling, having title to, hold, holding, indent, inhabitancy, inhabitation, inhabiting, interest, job, knight service, labor, lay fee, lease, leasehold, legal claim, legal possession, lifework, line, line of business, line of work, living, lodging, lookout, management, mandate, manipulation, matter, metier, mission, movements, mystery, nesting, number, occupancy, operancy, operation, operations, oppression, original title, owning, performance, performing, play, position, possessing, possession, post, practice, praxis, preemption, preoccupancy, preoccupation, prepossession, prescription, profession, property, property rights, proprietary rights, pursuit, racket, requisition, residence, residency, residing, responsibility, rule, running, seisin, seizure, service, settlement, situation, skill, socage, sojourning, specialization, specialty, squatting, staying, staying over, steering, stopping, subjection, subjugation, sublease, suzerainty, swing, take-over, takeover, taking over, tenancy, tenantry, tenure, tenure in chivalry, thing, title, trade, underlease, undertaking, undertenancy, usucapion, usurpation, villein socage, villeinhold, villenage, vocation, walk, walk of life, work, working, workings