occupy

Etymology

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 *keh₂p- (“to seize, grab”). Doublet of occupate, now obsolete.

verb

1. (transitive, of time) To take or use.
   1. To fill.
      The film occupied three hours of my time.
   2. To possess or use the time or capacity of; to engage the service of.
      The film occupied me for three hours.
      I occupy myself with gardening for a few hours every day.
   3. To fill or hold (an official position or role).
      I occupy the post of deputy cat catcher.
   4. To hold the attention of.
      I occupied her friend while he made his proposal.
2. (transitive) To take or use space.
   1. To fill space.
      The historic mansion occupied two city blocks.
   2. To live or reside in.
   3. (military) To have, or to have taken, possession or control of (a territory).
      The Japanese can occupy but cannot hold, and what they can hold they cannot hold long, was the opinion of General Pai Chung-hsi, Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese Army, […] 1940, The China monthly review, volumes 94-95, page 370
      Rupert, with his usual untamable energy, was scouring the country — but at first in the wrong direction, that of Aylesbury, another keypoint in the outer ring of Oxford defences, which he occupied but could not hold. 1975, Esmé Cecil Wingfield-Stratford, King Charles and King Pym, 1637-1643, page 330
      One of the rebel marksmen, who had taken up position on a boulder, was knocked off it by the recoil of his weapon every time he fired. Again the attack achieved nothing. Positions were occupied, but could not be held. 1983, Arthur Keppel-Jones, Rhodes and Rhodesia: The White Conquest of Zimbabwe, 1884-1902, page 462
      Germany occupied France for three years while France struggled to make payments that were a condition of surrender. 1991, Werner Spies, John William Gabriel, Max Ernst collages: the invention of the surrealist universe, page 333
      Spain occupied, but could not populate, and its failure to expand Florida led Britain to consider the peninsula a logical extension of its colonial holdings. 2006, John Michael Francis, Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, page 496
   4. (surveying) To place the theodolite or total station at (a point).
3. (transitive, obsolete) To have sexual intercourse with.
   1867, Robert Nares A Glossary OCCUPY, [sensu obsc.] To possess, or enjoy. These villains will make the word captain, as odious as the word occupy. 2 Hen. IV, ii, 4. Groyne, come of age, his state sold out of hand For 's whore; Groyne still doth occupy his land. B. Jons. Epigr., 117. Many, out of their own obscene apprehensions, refuse proper and fit words, as occupy, nature, and the like. Ibid., Discoveries, vol. vii, p. 119. It is so used also in Rowley's New Wonder, Anc. Dr., v, 278.
4. (obsolete) To do business in; to busy oneself with.
   not able to occupy their old crafts 1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin), 1516
5. (obsolete) To use; to expend; to make use of.
   They occupy not money themselves. 1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin), 1516