apply
Formsapplies, applying, applied
Formsapplies, applying, applied
- 1To put something to use, employing it for a particular purpose or in a particular case.
Teachers apply different methods depending on the students in the room.
The committee applied the new guidelines to every pending case.
UsageUsually apply something to a case or problem: apply the new rules to every case.
Similaruse
- 2To have relevance or bearing on a particular person, thing, or situation.
The new tax law applies only to incomes above a certain level.
Many of these warnings apply equally to beginners and experts.
UsageThe pattern is apply to: the discount applies to sale items; the warnings apply equally to beginners and experts.
- 3To make a formal request, usually in writing, for something such as a job, a place, or permission, or to a person or body that can grant it.
Hundreds of students apply to that university every year.
He decided to apply for the manager position last week.
UsageApply for what you want, to whoever decides: apply for a job (not
incorrect: apply a job), apply to a university. - 4To lay or place one thing onto another, bringing it into direct contact with a surface.
Nurses apply a clean bandage once the wound has been cleaned.
He applied firm pressure to the cut to stop the bleeding.
UsageYou apply something to a surface or wound: apply glue to the paper, apply pressure to a cut.
Oppositeremove
Note
The physical sense keeps the Latin root close to the surface. Applicō meant "join, fix, or attach to", from ad and plicō, "fold, twist together", the family that also gives English ply. Something applied is brought into contact: cream to a rash, a bandage to a wound. Dryden could still write that a man "to the sword his throat applied"; today the same verb spreads paint, glue and ointment.
- 5To use, declare, or pronounce something as suitable, fitting, or relevant in a particular case.
Critics apply the term "masterpiece" too freely these days.
Early naturalists applied the name "tiger" to almost any large striped cat they came across.
UsageUsually apply a word or name to someone or something: critics apply the term to too many films.
Note
Judgment is the point here: someone decides that a term, rule or sentence fits a case. Milton's God at last "To Satan, first in sin, his doom applied." The person doing the fitting is the subject. Turn the sentence around so the rule itself is the subject, as in "the rule applies to foreigners", and you have the intransitive "be relevant" sense.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The quotation is from John Milton's Paradise Lost, Book X; the narrator describes God applying Satan's doom. gutenberg.org
Less common meanings
- 6To give one's full effort and attention to a task or piece of work, working at it diligently.
Students who apply their minds to a subject early tend to master it.
He applied his whole mind to solving the puzzle.
UsageUsually apply yourself or apply your mind to something: he applied himself to his studies.
Similardevote
Note
The King James Bible of 1611 shows the older shape of this sense: "Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge." The object is a faculty, such as heart, ears or mind, joined closely to what it attends to.
- 7To keep someone busy at work; to set a person steadily to a task.
Note
An obsolete use that overlaps with ply, a word from the same Latin family. To apply someone was to keep them at work. Philip Sidney, writing before 1587, describes a woman "no less skillful in applying his humours", that is, in keeping his moods in play, never letting his fear sink to despair or his hope reach certainty. Current English keeps the idea of steady occupation in apply oneself.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- Apply had an obsolete sense meaning to keep busy or at work, overlapping with ply. en.wiktionary.org
- Ply and apply belong to the same Latin family. en.wiktionary.org
- To apply someone could mean to keep them at work. en.wiktionary.org
- Sidney wrote the passage before 1587. en.wikipedia.org
- Sidney's Arcadia contains the quoted description, with spelling modernized. pages.uoregon.edu
- The surrounding passage describes manipulating his feelings, maintaining his hope while preventing assurance; it does not describe keeping him occupied at work. gutenberg.org
- The idea also survives in transitive constructions such as applying one's mind or attention to a task; remove only. en.wiktionary.org
- 8To go to visit a place or person.
His armour was so clear, And he applied each place so fast, that like a lightning thrown Out of the shield of Jupiter, in every eye he shone.
[1611?], Homer, The Iliads of Homer Prince of PoetsNote
An obsolete sense of motion, best seen in George Chapman's translation of the Iliad (1598–1611). There a warrior in bright armor "applied each place so fast" that he flashes like lightning. The place is the direct object, with no preposition. Modern English would say visit or reach. Using apply this way today would read as deliberate archaism.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Apply had an obsolete sense meaning to visit. en.wiktionary.org
- George Chapman translated the Iliad. gutenberg.org
- Chapman's translation first appeared in parts in 1598; the complete translation appeared in 1611. Book XI, containing this passage, was among the books published in 1598. apps.lib.umich.edu
- The quoted warrior has bright armour and shines like lightning; the exact quoted words occur in Chapman's translation. gutenberg.org
- Each place is the direct object of applied, without a preposition. gutenberg.org
- 9Alternative spelling of appley. Rare.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Latin 'applicō' ("join, fix, or attach to"), made of 'ad' and 'plicō' ("fold, twist together"), gave Old French 'applier', and Middle English took it as 'aplien'.