occupy
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
Middle English, from Old French occuper, from Latin occupare (“to take possession of, seize, occupy, take up, employ”), from ob (“to, on”) + capere (“to take”).
[edit] Verb
occupy (third-person singular simple present occupies, present participle occupying, simple past and past participle occupied)
- (transitive): To fill either time or space.
- The film occupied three hours of my time.
- (transitive): To live or reside in.
- We occupy a small flat.
- 1992, Rudolf M. Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, page vii
- 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 […]
- (transitive): To fill or hold a position.
- I occupy the post of deputy cat catcher.
- (transitive): To conquer somewhere.
- The Germans occupied the Channel Islands.
- (transitive): To hold the attention of.
- I occupied her friend while he made his proposal.
- (transitive, obsolete) To cohabit, to have sexual intercourse with. (Reference: Sidney J. Baker, The Australian Language, second edition, 1966.)
- 1590s: 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 sorted — William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, II.iv [1].
- (transitive, surveying) To place the theodolite or total station at (a point).
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Related terms
[edit] Translations
time or space
reside in
hold a position
conquer
hold attention of
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[edit] References
- Oxford English Dictionary, 1884-1928, and First Supplement, 1933
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- occupy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- occupy in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
