hires

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of hire.

   The agency hires translators for international conferences.

   Whenever demand spikes, the warehouse hires temporary packers.

   Note

   Spelled exactly like the noun for new recruits, this form is told apart by what it does in the sentence: the agency hires staff, but the agency's hires start Monday. Everywhere, its object can be people. British use also lets it take premises held for rent or a task done by paying others. With no object at all, it means the subject is taking a job.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of hire.

   Several of this year's hires came from rival companies.

   Managers were asked to mentor the recent hires in their departments.

   Note

   Only one kind of hire can be counted: the person taken on, often as one of a group who start together. The other nouns, meaning employment, payment for using something, and the obsolete sense of reward, are mass nouns with no plural. So hires nearly always means people, and it sits naturally after words that mark a cohort: new hires, recent hires, this year's hires.

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