Verb

(en verb)

To hire (somebody for work or a job).

* 1668 July 3rd, , “Thomas Rue contra'' Andrew Hou?toun” in ''The Deci?ions of the Lords of Council & Se??ion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 547

Andrew Hou?toun'' and ''Adam Mu?het'', being Tack?men of the Excize, did Imploy ''Thomas Rue'' to be their Collector, and gave him a Sallary of 30. pound ''Sterling for a year.

*{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1

, passage=Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.}}

To use (somebody for a job, or something for a task).

* 1598 , (William Shakespeare), (Othello) , Act 1, Scene iii:

Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you / against the general enemy Ottoman.

* (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)

This is a day in which the thoughtsought to be employed on serious subjects.

*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Charles T. Ambrose

, title= Alzheimer’s Disease , volume=101, issue=3, page=200, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads.}}

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)

, volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution , passage=The dispatches […] also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies. Having lectured the Arab world about democracy for years, its collusion in suppressing freedom was undeniable as protesters were met by weaponry and tear gas made in the west, employed by a military trained by westerners.}}

To make busy.

* 1598 , (William Shakespeare), (The Merchant of Venice) , Act 2, Scene viii:

Let it not enter in your mind of love: / Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts / to courtship and such fair ostents of love / as shall conveniently become you there

Verb

(en verb)

(with relationship specified) To take by choice into relationship, child, heir, friend, citizen, etc.

(with relationship implied by context) To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child.

A friend of mine recently adopted a Chinese baby girl found on the streets of Beijing.

(with relationship implied by context) To obtain (a pet) from a shelter or the wild.

We're going to adopt a Dalmatian.

(with relationship implied by context) To take by choice into the scope of one's responsibility.

This supermarket chain adopts several families every Yuletide, providing them with money and groceries for the holidays.

To take or receive as one's own what is not so naturally.(rfex)

* '>citation

To select and take or approve.

to adopt the view or policy of another

These resolutions were adopted .