Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To engage the services of (a person) for a fee; employ.
  • intransitive verb To engage the temporary use of for a fee; rent.
  • intransitive verb To grant the services of or the temporary use of for a fee.
  • intransitive verb To obtain work.
  • noun The act of hiring.
  • noun The condition or fact of being hired.
  • noun Payment for services; wages.
  • noun Payment for the use of something.
  • noun Informal One who is hired.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • See he.
  • To engage the use of for a consideration; agree to pay a price or give an equivalent for the use of: as, to hire a horse and carriage; to hire a house for a year.
  • To engage the services of; employ for wages, a salary, or other consideration: as, to hire laborers, a clerk, a teacher, etc.
  • To engage the interest of; agree to pay for the desired action or conduct of; bribe; reward.
  • To borrow (money).
  • To grant the temporary use of for compensation; lend the service of for a reward; let; lease: often with out: as, to hire out a horse or carriage.
  • Synonyms Hire, Let, Rent, Lease, Charter. The verb hire applies to both persons and property, but is appropriately used to designate the act of an employer, tenant, or bailee who engages some person or thing by a promise to pay hire. Let applies only to property, and only to the act of the owner or lessor. Rent and lease apply only to property, but are used indifferently of the act of the owner or lessor and that of the tenant. Charter is used only of vessels (and colloquially of railroad-cars and -engines), but is used appropriately of the act of the hirer, not that of the lessor, unless so indicated by the context. See employ.
  • noun A price, reward, or compensation paid or contracted to be given for the use of something.
  • noun A reward or recompense paid for personal service; wages.
  • noun Compensation in general; reward.
  • noun Synonyms Wages, Pay, etc. (see salary), remuneration.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The price, reward, or compensation paid, or contracted to be paid, for the temporary use of a thing or a place, for personal service, or for labor; wages; rent; pay.
  • noun (Law.) A bailment by which the use of a thing, or the services and labor of a person, are contracted for at a certain price or reward.
  • pronoun See here, pron.
  • transitive verb To procure (any chattel or estate) from another person, for temporary use, for a compensation or equivalent; to purchase the use or enjoyment of for a limited time
  • transitive verb To engage or purchase the service, labor, or interest of (any one) for a specific purpose, by payment of wages.
  • transitive verb To grant the temporary use of, for compensation; to engage to give the service of, for a price; to let; to lease; -- now usually with out, and often reflexively.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Payment for the temporary use of something.
  • noun obsolete Reward, payment.
  • noun The state of being hired, or having a job; employment.
  • noun A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort.
  • verb transitive To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.
  • verb transitive To employ; to obtain the services of (a person) in exchange for remuneration; to give someone a job.
  • verb transitive To exchange the services of for remuneration.
  • verb transitive To accomplish by paying for services.
  • verb intransitive To accept employment

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb engage for service under a term of contract
  • noun a newly hired employee
  • verb engage or hire for work
  • verb hold under a lease or rental agreement; of goods and services
  • noun the act of hiring something or someone

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English hiren, from Old English hȳrian.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old English hȳr ("employment for wages, pay for service"), from Proto-Germanic *hūzijō (“hire”), from Proto-Indo-European *kūs- (“price, hire”). Cognate with West Frisian hier ("hire"), Dutch huur ("hire"), Low German Hüre ("hire"), German Heuer ("hire"), Danish hyre ("hire").

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