What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Supply vs Employ - What's the difference?

supply | employ |

As verbs the difference between supply and employ

is that supply is to provide (something), to make (something) available for use while employ is to hire (somebody for work or a job).

As nouns the difference between supply and employ

is that supply is (uncountable) the act of supplying while employ is the state of being an employee; employment.

As an adverb supply

is supplely: in a supple manner, with suppleness.

supply

English

(wikipedia supply)

Alternative forms

* supplely

Etymology 1

From (etyl) souploier, from (etyl) .

Verb

  • To provide (something), to make (something) available for use.
    • to supply money for the war
    (Prior)
  • To furnish or equip with.
    • to supply''' a furnace with fuel; to '''supply soldiers with ammunition
  • To fill up, or keep full.
    • Rivers are supplied by smaller streams.
  • To compensate for, or make up a deficiency of.
  • * 1881 , :
    • It was objected against him that he had never experienced love. Whereupon he arose, left the society, and made it a point not to return to it until he considered that he had supplied the defect.
  • To serve instead of; to take the place of.
  • * Waller
    • Burning ships the banished sun supply .
  • * Dryden
    • The sun was set, and Vesper, to supply / His absent beams, had lighted up the sky.
  • To act as a substitute.
  • To fill temporarily; to serve as substitute for another in, as a vacant place or office; to occupy; to have possession of.
    • to supply a pulpit
    Derived terms
    * supplier
    Related terms
    * (l)

    Noun

    (supplies)
  • (uncountable) The act of supplying.
    • supply and demand
  • (countable) An amount of something supplied.
    • A supply of good drinking water is essential.
  • (in the plural) provisions.
  • (mostly, in the plural) An amount of money provided, as by Parliament or Congress, to meet the annual national expenditures.
    • to vote supplies
  • Somebody, such as a teacher or clergyman, who temporarily fills the place of another; a substitute.
    • Derived terms
    * supply teacher

    Etymology 2

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • Supplely: in a supple manner, with suppleness.
  • * 1906 , Ford Madox Ford, The fifth queen: and how she came to court , page 68:
    • His voice was playful and full; his back was bent supply .
  • * 1938 , David Leslie Murray, Commander of the mists :
  • * 1963 , Johanna Moosdorf, Next door :
    • She swayed slightly in the gusts, bent supply to them and seemed at one with the force which Straup found so hostile.
  • * 1988 , ??????? ?????????????? ???????? (Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov), Quiet flows the Don (translated), volume 1, page 96:
    • Grigory hesitantly took her in his arms to kiss her, but she held him off, bent supply backwards and shot a frightened glance at the windows.
    'They'll see!'
    'Let them!'
    'I'd be ashamed—'

    External links

    * * * English heteronyms

    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

    External links

    * * *