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- DictionaryOc·cu·py/ˈäkyəˌpī/
verb
- 1. reside or have one's place of business in (a building): "the apartment she occupies in Manhattan" Similar live ininhabitbe the tenant oftenantlodge inbe established/ensconced inestablish/ensconce oneself intake up residence inmake one's home insettle inmove intopeoplepopulatesettlestay informal:reside indwell in
- ▪ fill or take up (a space or time): "two long windows occupied almost the whole wall" Similar take upfillfill upcoverextend overuse uputilize
- ▪ be situated in or at (a place or position in a system or hierarchy): "on the corporate ladder, they occupy the lowest rungs"
- ▪ hold (a position or job): "a very different job from any that he had occupied before" Similar holdbe infillhaveinformal:hold down
- 2. fill or preoccupy (the mind or thoughts): "her mind was occupied with alarming questions" Similar engagebusyemploydistractabsorbengrosspreoccupyholdhold the attention ofimmerseinterestinvolveentertaindivertamusebeguile
- ▪ keep (someone) busy and active: "Sarah occupied herself taking the coffee cups over to the sink"
- 3. take control of (a place, especially a country) by military conquest or settlement: "the region was occupied by Britain during World War I" Similar captureseizetake possession ofconquerinvadeoverruntake overcolonizegarrisonannexdominatesubjugatehegemonizeholdcommandeerrequisitionOpposite leaveabandonquit
- ▪ enter, take control of, and stay in (a building) illegally and often forcibly, especially as a form of protest: "the workers occupied the factory"
Word Origin Middle English: formed irregularly from Old French occuper, from Latin occupare ‘seize’. A now obsolete vulgar sense ‘have sexual relations with’ seems to have led to the general avoidance of the word in the 17th and most of the 18th century.
Scrabble Points: 15
O
1C
3C
3U
1P
3Y
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