Link Centre Dictionary

occupy

oc·cupy

UK/ˈɒkjʊpaɪ/ US/ˈɑkjəpaɪ/ fairly common

verb

1.

be present in; be inside of

Synonyms
2.

keep busy with

  • “She busies herself with her butterfly collection”
Synonyms
3.

live (in a certain place)

Synonyms
4.

occupy the whole of

  • “The liquid fills the container”
Synonyms
5.

be on the mind of

  • “I worry about the second Germanic consonant”
Synonyms
6.

as of time or space

  • “It took three hours to get to work this morning”
  • “This event occupied a very short time”
Synonyms
7.

march aggressively into another''s territory by military force for the purposes of conquest and occupation

  • “Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939”
Synonyms
8.

engage or engross wholly

  • “Her interest in butterflies absorbs her completely”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English occupien, occupyen, borrowed from Old French occuper, from Latin occupāre (“to take possession of, seize, occupy, take up, employ”), from ob (“to, on”) + capiō (“to take”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to seize, grab”). Doublet of occupate, now obsolete.

Phrases

  • occupy oneself

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.