hire

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search
See also: Hire and híre

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English hire, hyre, here, hure, from Old English hȳr (“employment for wages; pay for service; interest on money lent”), from Proto-Germanic *hūrijō (“hire”), from Proto-Indo-European *kuHs-. Compare Hittite 𒆪𒊭𒀭 (kuššan-, “fee, pay, wages, price”).

Cognate with West Frisian hier (“hire”), Dutch huur (“lease, rental”), German Low German Hüür (“lease, rental”).

Noun[edit]

hire (plural hires)

  1. Payment for the temporary use of something.
    The sign offered pedalos on hire.
  2. (obsolete) Reward, payment.
    • Bible, Luke x. 7
      The labourer is worthy of his hire.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.viii:
      I will him reaue of armes, the victors hire, / And of that shield, more worthy of good knight; / For why should a dead dog be deckt in armour bright?
  3. The state of being hired, or having a job; employment.
    When my grandfather retired, he had over twenty mechanics in his hire.
  4. A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort.
    We pair up each of our new hires with one of our original hires.
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English hiren, heren, huren, from Old English hȳrian (“to hire”), from the noun (see above). Compare West Frisian hiere (“to rent, lease”), Dutch huren (“to rent, lease”), Low German hüren (“to rent”), Danish hyre (“to hire”).

Eclipsed Middle English souden (“to hire, employ, enlist”), borrowed from Old French souder, soudre, souldre (“to take into employ, pay”); see English sold (“salary, military pay”).

Verb[edit]

hire (third-person singular simple present hires, present participle hiring, simple past and past participle hired)

  1. (transitive) To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.
    Synonym: rent
    We hired a car for two weeks because ours had broken down.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 16, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      “[…] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”
  2. (transitive) To employ; to obtain the services of (a person) in exchange for remuneration; to give someone a job.
    The company had problems when it tried to hire more skilled workers.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 10, in The Celebrity:
      The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.
  3. (transitive) To exchange the services of for remuneration.
    They hired themselves out as day laborers.  They hired out their basement for Inauguration week.
  4. (transitive) To accomplish by paying for services.
    After waiting two years for her husband to finish the tiling, she decided to hire it done.
  5. (intransitive) To accept employment.
    They hired out as day laborers.
Antonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from hire (verb)
Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
See also[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Abron[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Akan hyire (“white clay”).

Noun[edit]

hire

  1. white clay

References[edit]

  • Trutenau, Languages of the Akan Area: Papers in Western Kwa Linguistics (1976)

Basque[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

hire

  1. genitive of hi, your

Japanese[edit]

Romanization[edit]

hire

  1. Rōmaji transcription of ひれ

Middle Dutch[edit]

Contraction[edit]

hire

  1. Contraction of hi dāer.

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Old English hiere (“her”), from Proto-Germanic *hezōi, dative singular plural of *hiz (“this”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe (“here; this”).

Alternative forms[edit]

Determiner[edit]

hire (nominative pronoun sche)

  1. Third-person singular feminine genitive determiner: her, of her.
  2. Used in place of the possessive suffix -es to denote possession by an antecedent noun.
    • 1430, Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale.
      Here begynnyt the wyf of bathe hir tale.
Synonyms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
  • Scots: her
  • English: her

Pronoun[edit]

hire (nominative sche)

  1. Third-person singular feminine genitive pronoun: hers.
Synonyms[edit]

References[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Old English hire.

Pronoun[edit]

hire (nominative sche)

  1. Third-person singular feminine pronoun indicating a grammatical object: her.
  2. (reflexive) herself.
  3. Third-person singular neuter pronoun indicating a grammatical object: it.
See also[edit]

References[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

From Old English here.

Noun[edit]

hire

  1. Alternative form of here (“army”)

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Adjective[edit]

hire

  1. neuter singular of hiren

Old English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

hire

  1. genitive/dative of hēo

Declension[edit]

Declension of hire — Strong only
Singular Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative hire hiru, hiro hire
Accusative hirne hire hire
Genitive hires hirre hires
Dative hirum hirre hirum
Instrumental hire hirre hire
Plural Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative hire hira, hire hiru, hiro
Accusative hire hira, hire hiru, hiro
Genitive hirra hirra hirra
Dative hirum hirum hirum
Instrumental hirum hirum hirum

Descendants[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=hire&oldid=58933201"