occupy

verb

USOK-yuh-py/ˈɑkjəpaɪ/UKOK-yuu-py/ˈɒkjʊpaɪ/

Formsoccupies, occupying, occupied

11 meanings of occupy

Practice

1
verbtransitive
To take up or fill a given amount of space.
The new sofa occupies nearly the entire wall.
Storage crates occupy the back third of the warehouse.
Similarfill, cover
2
verbtransitive
To live in or inhabit a building or dwelling.
The same family has occupied that farmhouse for generations.
Several students occupy the rooms on the top floor.
Similarinhabit
Oppositevacate
3
verbtransitive
To hold or take possession and control of a territory, especially by military force.
The army occupied the capital within days of the invasion.
Foreign forces occupy the disputed islands to this day.
Similarseize, capture, hold
Note
The military sense keeps company with a telling contrast. A force occupied a place but could not hold it: General Pai Chung-hsi said so of the Japanese in 1940, and Wingfield-Stratford said it of Rupert at Aylesbury. To occupy is to get in; to hold is to stay. With a whole country as object it stretches over years: Germany occupied France for three years.
4
verbtransitive
To take up and hold someone's attention or thoughts.
The mystery novel occupied her completely until dawn.
Worries about money occupy his thoughts at night.
Similarabsorb, engross, engage, fill
5
verbtransitive
To hold or fill an official position or role.
He has occupied the post of treasurer for a decade.
Several judges occupy the bench during major hearings.
Similarhold, fill
Oppositevacate
6
verbtransitive
To take up the time or capacity of someone; to keep someone engaged.
Preparing the report occupied the whole team for a week.
Endless errands occupy his days after retirement.
Similarfill, consume, engage
Note
Here the object is a person rather than a stretch of time, and the reflexive is the shape learners most need: occupy oneself with something, usually followed by an -ing form (occupy myself with gardening). Compare filling hours, where the hours themselves are the object. The film occupied three hours, but it occupied me.
7
verbtransitive
To fill or take up the whole of something.
Appointments occupied the whole of her afternoon.
Backup files occupy the rest of the disk space.
Similarfill, consume
Note
A verb of seizing before it was a verb of filling: Latin occupāre, from ob "on" and capiō "to take", reached English through Old French. That grip still shows when time is the object. A film that occupies three hours has taken them, and the whole span is meant. The everyday spatial use is filling space; this one measures out hours.
8
verbtransitive
To set up a theodolite or total station at a given survey point.
The technician occupied the control point before sighting the targets.
Survey teams occupy benchmarks across the site to establish coordinates.
Note
Surveyors turn the word on a point rather than a space. To occupy a station is to set the instrument up over it, positioned and leveled, so that angles and distances to other points can be measured from there. The object is always the mark on the ground, such as a control point or a benchmark. The instrument itself is understood.

Less common meanings

9
verbobsoletetransitive
To have sexual intercourse with someone.
God's light, these villains will make the word as odious as the word 'occupy;' which was an excellent good word before it was ill sorted
1591, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt,”
Note
An obsolete sexual sense that tainted the whole verb. Shakespeare has a character complain that villains will make another word "as odious as the word occupy; which was an excellent good word before it was ill sorted." Robert Nares's Glossary of 1867 defines it delicately as "to possess, or enjoy." Readers meet it only in old texts, and nobody uses it now.
10
verbobsolete
To do business in something, or to busy oneself with a task or trade.
not able to occupy their old crafts
1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin)
All the ships of the sea, with their mariners, were in thee to occupy the merchandise.
1611, The Holy Bible, King James Version
Note
An obsolete trading sense, at home in Tudor and Jacobean English. The King James Bible of 1611 has mariners "to occupy the merchandise," and Ralph Robinson's 1551 translation of More's Utopia speaks of men "not able to occupy their old crafts." Its object is the goods dealt in or the craft practiced. The noun occupation, meaning a person's trade, keeps this meaning alive.
11
verbobsolete
To use something; to expend or make use of it.
They occupy not money themselves.
1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin)
all the gold that was occupied for the work
1611, The Holy Bible, King James Version
Note
An obsolete sense from the same two books as the old trading sense, and close to the Latin "employ." Gold "occupied for the work" is gold used up on it, and Utopians who "occupy not money" make no use of coin. The King James "occupy till I come" (Luke 19:13) means to put money to profitable use. In an old text, read occupy as use.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of occupy apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

This word comes from Middle English occupien, borrowed from Old French occuper, from Latin occupāre ("to take possession of, seize, take up, employ"). The Latin verb combines ob ("to, on") with capiō ("to take"), tracing back to the Proto-Indo-European root *keh₂p- ("to seize, grab").