Employ, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Employed; p. pr. & vb. n. Employing.] — Webster enters it under “employ”
Etymology: [F. employer, fr. L. implicare to fold into, infold, involve, implicate, engage; in + plicare to fold. See Ply, and cf. Imply, Implicate.]
1. To inclose; to infold. [Obs.] Chaucer.
2. To use; to have in service; to cause to be engaged in doing something; -- often followed by in, about, on, or upon, and sometimes by to; as: (a) To make use of, as an instrument, a means, a material, etc., for a specific purpose; to apply; as, to employ the pen in writing, bricks in building, words and phrases in speaking; to employ the mind; to employ one's energies. This is a day in which the thoughts . . . ought to be employed on serious subjects. Addison.
(b) To occupy; as, to employ time in study. (c) To have or keep at work; to give employment or occupation to; to intrust with some duty or behest; as, to employ a hundred workmen; to employ an envoy. Jonathan . . . and Jahaziah . . . were employed about this matter. Ezra x. 15. Thy vineyard must employ the sturdy steer To turn the glebe. Dryden. To employ one's self, to apply or devote one's time and attention; to busy one's self.
Syn. -- To use; busy; apply; exercise; occupy; engross; engage. See Use.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Employ, n.
That which engages or occupies a person; fixed or regular service or business; employment. The whole employ of body and of mind. Pope. In one's employ, in one's service.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for employed; he lists it under industrious.
Where he writes about it:
In general terms it may be said that to employ is to devote to one's purpose, to use is to render subservient to one's purpose; what is used is viewed as more absolutely an instrument than what is employed; a merchant employs a clerk; he uses pen and paper; as a rule, use is not said of persons, except in a degrading sense; as, the conspirators used him as a go-between. — from employ
A person may be employed in his own work or in that of another; in the latter case the service is always understood to be for pay. — from employ
In this connection employ is a word of more dignity than hire; a general is employed in his country's service; a mercenary adventurer is hired to fight a tyrant's battles. — from employ
It is unsuitable, according to present usage, to speak of hiring a pastor; the Scripture, indeed, says of the preacher, "The laborer is worthy of his hire;" but this sense is archaic, and hire now implies that the one hired works directly and primarily for the pay, as expressed in the noun "hireling;" a Pastor is properly said to be called, or when the business side of the transaction is referred to, engaged, or possibly employed, at a certain salary. — from employ