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"employ" is also used as a crossword clue. If that's what you saw, the answer is often hire (4 letters).
Definitions
To hire someone or put something to use.
Word origin
From late Middle English emploien, imploien, emplien (“to apply to a specific purpose”), from Anglo-Norman emploier, Old French emploiier (“to entangle, fabricate, to make use of”), ultimately from Latin implicāre (“to infold, entangle, involve, engage”), from in- (“in”) + plicāre (“to fold”). Doublet of imply and implicate.
Used in a sentence
“Our company employs hundreds of people.”
“Andrew Houſtoun and Adam Muſhet, being Tackſmen of the Excize, did Imploy Thomas Rue to be their Collector, and gave him a Sallary of 30. pound Sterling for a year.”
“Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Use or hire”6 letters
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