employment
(ɛmˈplɔɪmənt)
Also 7 em-, imploiement, -ploiment.
[f. employ v. + -ment.]
1. a. The action or process of employing; the state of being employed. Also in phrase, † (man, etc.) of much, little, etc. employment.
| 1598 Florio Dict. Ep. Ded. 2 Your able emploiment of such servitours. 1602 Shakes. Ham. v. i. 77 The hand of little Imployment hath the daintier sense. 1665 G. Havers P. della Valle's Trav. E. India 82 Bartolomeo Pontobuoni, a good Painter, and also a man of much Employment. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. v. i. (1675) 299 So meritorious an Imploiment of her Greatness shew'd her to be worthy of it. 1689 Howe Ho. Com. Deb. 29 Nov. in Cobbett Parl. Hist. Eng. (1809) V. 463 By the Employment of Mr. Shales. 1702 Eng. Theophrast. 136 It is good to compound employments of both [young and old]. 1871 B. Stewart Heat 26 The superior limit of its accurate employment. |
† b. The service (of a person). Phrase, at your employment. (Obs.)
| 1595 Shakes. John i. i. 198 At your employment; at your seruice sir. 1603 Breton Poste w. Packet, Love L. & Answ., I have devoted myself to your Imploiment. |
2. a. That on which (one) is employed; business; occupation; a special errand or commission.
| 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. ii. 85 Is there not wars? is there not imployment? 1598 ― Merry W. v. v. 135 How wit may be made a Iacke-a-Lent when 'tis vpon ill imployment. 1607 in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 246. III. 87 His emploiments, he saith, have been five times to Venice, once into Persia. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxx. 181 The excuse of not finding employment. 1738–41 Warburton Div. Legat. iv. vi. (R.), Had Jesus..made use of the great and learned for this employment. 1742 Richardson Pamela III. 345 Your Sunday Imployments charm us all. 1760 Goldsm. Cit. W. cxix, I..went from town to town, working when I could get employment. 1837 Sir F. Palgrave Merch. & Friar (1844) Ded. 2 The character acquired for me by my employments. |
† b. The use or purpose to which a thing is devoted. Obs.
| 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, i. i. 90 Lendings he hath detain'd for lewd employments. 1658 Whole Duty Man viii. §11. (1687) 71 Making it less fit for any imployment. |
c. A person's regular occupation or business; a trade or profession.
| 1648 Gage West Ind. xv. (1655) 102 In their imployments they are..Grasiers. 1674 Brevint Saul at Endor 72 They subdivide their Emploiements. 1839 Alison Hist. Europe (1849–50) I. ii. §66. 185 They..proposed..to let every man exercise any profession..or carry on any employment. |
† 3. An official position in the public service; a ‘place’. Obs.
| 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. (1702) II. vi. 93 Restored to their Offices, and Employments. 1708 Swift Sacram. Test II. i. 128 The gentlemen of employments here make a very considerable number in the house of commons. 1734 tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) II. ii. 59 He was made prætor which seems to have been a very considerable employment. |
¶ 4. = implement. Obs. rare—1.
| 1612 Chapman Widdowes T. Wks. 1873 III. 76 My stay hath been prolonged With hunting obscure nooks for these emploiments [a crowbar and a halter]. |
5. attrib. (in sense 2 c) employment agency, employment agent, employment bureau, employment exchange, etc., professional intermediaries between applicants for work and employers.
| 1886 J. A. Porter New Stand. Guide Washington 204 Dondore and Morse, Attorneys..also Employment Bureau. 1888 12th Rep. Ohio Bur. Labour Statistics 263 ‘Employment agencies’..have very appropriately been characterized as ‘a class who trade on the needs of the inexperienced searcher for honest employment’. 1903 Westm. Gaz. 23 Dec. 5/2 All the corporations have resolved to support the bakers, with the object of obtaining the complete suppression of the employment agencies [in Paris]. 1909 Lancet 11 Sept. 830/1 (heading) An employment exchange for university undergraduates. 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) 771 Employment agent; employment bureau manager. 1945 Archit. Rev. XCVIII. 115/1 Mushroom employment-agencies and dubious correspondence courses play on the soldier's anxiety and issue him promissory notes which will never be honoured. 1961 Technology Feb. 45/2 Youth employment service. Ibid., The company contact the youth employment officer. Ibid., It is probably this kind of situation that evoked from Miss Avent the words ‘employment exchange’. |