hire

Meanings

Noun

• Payment for the temporary use of something.
• Reward, payment.
• The state of being hired, or having a job; employment.
• A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort.

Verb

• To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.
• To employ; to obtain the services of (a person) in exchange for remuneration; to give someone a job.
• To exchange the services of for remuneration.
• To accomplish by paying for services.
• To accept employment.

Related

Similar words

• employment, employ

Opposite words

• fire

Origin

• From Middle English hire, hyre, here, hure, from Old English hȳr, from Proto-West Germanic *hūʀiju, from Proto-Indo-European *kewHs-. Compare Hittite 𒆪𒊭𒀭.
• Cognate with West Frisian hier, Dutch huur, German Low German Hüür.
• From Middle English hiren, hyren, from Old English hȳrian, from the noun (see above). Compare West Frisian hiere, Dutch huren, Low German hüren, Danish hyre.
• Eclipsed Middle English souden, borrowed from Old French souder, soudre, souldre; see English sold.