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Rent vs Employ - What's the difference?

rent | employ |

As nouns the difference between rent and employ

is that rent is a payment made by a tenant at intervals in order to occupy a property while employ is the state of being an employee; employment.

As verbs the difference between rent and employ

is that rent is to occupy premises in exchange for rent while employ is to hire (somebody for work or a job).

rent

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) rente, from .

Noun

(en noun)
  • A payment made by a tenant at intervals in order to occupy a property.
  • * , chapter=17
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.}}
  • A similar payment for the use of equipment or a service.
  • (economics) A profit from possession of a valuable right, as a restricted license to engage in a trade or business.
  • An object for which rent is charged or paid.
  • (obsolete) income; revenue
  • * Gower
  • [Bacchus] a waster was and all his rent / In wine and bordel he dispent.
  • * (Alexander Pope)
  • So bought an annual rent or two, / And liv'd, just as you see I do.
    Derived terms
    * rental * renting * rent strike

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To occupy premises in exchange for rent.
  • To grant occupation in return for rent.
  • To obtain or have temporary possession of an object (e.g. a movie) in exchange for money.
  • To be leased or let for rent.
  • The house rents for five hundred dollars a month.

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) . Variant form of renden.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A tear or rip in some surface.
  • * 1913 ,
  • The brown paint on the door was so old that the naked wood showed between the rents .
  • A division or schism.
  • Verb

    (head)
  • (rend)
  • employ

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l) (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The state of being an employee; employment.
  • ''The school district has six thousand teachers in its employ .

    Synonyms

    * employment * hire

    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

    Derived terms

    * employee * employer * employment