Noun

hire (countable and uncountable, plural hires)Category:English lemmas#HIRECategory:English nouns#HIRECategory:English uncountable nouns#HIRECategory:English countable nouns#HIRECategory:English countable nouns#HIRECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#HIRECategory:Pages with entries#HIRECategory:Pages with 9 entries#HIRE

1. (countableCategory:English countable nouns#HIRE) A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort.

   We pair up each of our new hires with one of our original hires.Category:English terms with usage examples#HIRE

   • 2024 February 21, Nick Brodrick, “Inclusion and development for all”, in RAIL, number 1003, page 62:

     Employment statistics, the other key indicator of Diversity & Inclusion performance, shows that almost 30% of new Southeastern hires are women.

     Category:English terms with quotations#HIRE

2. (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#HIRE) The state of being hired, or having a job; employment.

   Synonym: employ

   When my grandfather retired, he had over twenty mechanics in his hire.Category:English terms with usage examples#HIRE

3. (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#HIRE) Payment for the temporary use of something.

   The sign offered pedalos on hire.Category:English terms with usage examples#HIRE

4. (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#HIRE, obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#HIRE) Reward.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     I vvill him reaue of armes, the victors hire, / And of that ſhield, more vvorthy of good knight; / For vvhy ſhould a dead dog be deckt in armour bright?

     Category:English terms with quotations#HIRE

   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], lines 682–683:

     I have five hundred crovvns, / The thrifty hire I ſav'd under your father […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#HIRE

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 10:7:

     The labourer is worthy of his hire.

     Category:English terms with quotations#HIRE

   • 1619, Samuell Hieron, “The Worth of the Water of Life. Dauids Longing, and Dauids Loue. The Good Fight. [II. Tim[othy] 4. 7.]”, in The Sermons of Master Samuell Hieron, […], London: […] Iohn Beale [and John Legatt printer to the Uniuersitie of Cambridge for Thomas Man, Ioyce Macham, Cantrell Legge, and Simon Waterson], published 1620, →OCLC, pages 222–223:

     I haue ſeene a pardon giuen to a man vpon the gallovves, but vvho ſo emboldeneth himſelfe thereuypon, perhaps the rope may be his hire: it is not good to put it vpon the Pſalme of Miſerere, and the neck-verſe, for ſometime he prooues no clarke.

     Category:English terms with quotations#HIRE

Verb

hire (third-person singular simple present hires, present participle hiring, simple past and past participle hired)Category:English lemmas#HIRECategory:English verbs#HIRECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#HIRECategory:Pages with entries#HIRECategory:Pages with 9 entries#HIRE

1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#HIRE, chiefly UKCategory:British English#HIRE and AustraliaCategory:Australian English#HIRE) To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.

   Synonym: rent

   We hired a car for two weeks because ours had broken down.Category:English terms with usage examples#HIRE

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     “ […] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”

     Category:English terms with quotations#HIRE

2. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#HIRE, chiefly UKCategory:British English#HIRE) To occupy premises in exchange for rent.

   Synonym: rent

   • 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Economy”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:

     I do not mean to insist here on the disadvantage of hiring compared with owning, but it is evident that the savage owns his shelter because it costs so little, while the civilized man hires his commonly because he cannot afford to own it; nor can he, in the long run, any better afford to hire.

     Category:English terms with quotations#HIRE

3. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#HIRE) To employ; to obtain the services of (a person) in exchange for remuneration; to give someone a job.

   The company had problems when it tried to hire more skilled workers.Category:English terms with usage examples#HIRE

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.

     Category:English terms with quotations#HIRE

4. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#HIRE) To exchange the services of for remuneration.

   They hired themselves out as day laborers.  They hired out their basement for Inauguration week.Category:English terms with usage examples#HIRE

5. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#HIRE, chiefly UKCategory:British English#HIRE) To accomplish by paying for services.

   After waiting two years for her husband to finish the tiling, she decided to hire it done.Category:English terms with usage examples#HIRE

6. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#HIRE) To accept employment.

   They hired out as day laborers.Category:English terms with usage examples#HIRE

7. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#HIRE) (neologismCategory:English neologisms#HIRE) (in the Jobs-to-be-Done Theory) To buy something in order for it to perform a function, to do a job

   They hired a milkshake.Category:English terms with usage examples#HIRE

Alternative forms

• hir, hyre, hyr, ire, ir, here, her, ere, er, heyre, heore, hare, hure, hur, hurre, huere

Determiner

hire (nominative pronoun sche)Category:Middle English lemmas#HIRECategory:Middle English determiners#HIRECategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#HIRECategory:Pages with entries#HIRECategory:Pages with 9 entries#HIRE

2. Third-person singular feminine genitive determiner: her, of her.
3. Used in place of the possessive suffix -es to denote possession by an antecedent noun.
   • 1430, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale.”, in Canterbury Tales:

     Here begynnyt the wyf of bathe hir tale.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

     Category:Middle English terms with quotations#HIRECategory:Requests for translations of Middle English quotations#HIRE

Pronoun

hire (nominative sche)Category:Middle English lemmas#HIRECategory:Middle English pronouns#HIRECategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#HIRECategory:Pages with entries#HIRECategory:Pages with 9 entries#HIRE

2. Third-person singular feminine genitive pronoun: hers.

Pronoun

hire (nominative sche)Category:Middle English lemmas#HIRECategory:Middle English pronouns#HIRECategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#HIRECategory:Pages with entries#HIRECategory:Pages with 9 entries#HIRE

2. Third-person singular feminine pronoun indicating a grammatical object: her.
3. (reflexive) herself.
4. Third-person singular neuter pronoun indicating a grammatical object: it.

Alternative forms

• hier, hijre, hir, hyer, hyr, hyre
• hoyre, huire, hure, huyre, hyure (West Midland)
• here (East Anglia)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhiːr(ə)/, (East Anglia, Kent) /ˈheːr(ə)/, (West Midland) /ˈhyːr(ə)/Category:Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation#HIRE

Noun

hireCategory:Middle English lemmas#HIRECategory:Middle English nouns#HIRECategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#HIRECategory:Pages with entries#HIRECategory:Pages with 9 entries#HIRE (plural hires)

1. One's salary; wages.

   Synonyms: mede, wage

2. A reward; recompense.

   Synonym: mede

3. One's deserts; what one deserves.
   • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎, published c. 1410, Petre ·ii· 2:15, folio 113, verso, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

     […] þat foꝛſaken þe riȝt weie .· ⁊ erriden ſuynge þe weie of balaam of boſoꝛ / which louyde þe hire of wickidneſſe

     […] who've abandoned the right way and strayed, following the way of Balaam of Bosor, who loved the fruits of wrongdoing.

     Category:Middle English terms with quotations#HIRE

4. A payment; a charge.

Noun

hireCategory:Middle English alternative forms#HIRECategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#HIRECategory:Pages with entries#HIRECategory:Pages with 9 entries#HIRE

1. alternative form of here (“army”)

Noun

hireCategory:Middle English alternative forms#HIRECategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#HIRECategory:Pages with entries#HIRECategory:Pages with 9 entries#HIRE

1. (SomersetCategory:Somerset Middle English#HIRE) alternative form of iren

Verb

hireCategory:Middle English alternative forms#HIRECategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#HIRECategory:Pages with entries#HIRECategory:Pages with 9 entries#HIRE

1. alternative form of hiren (“to hire”)

Descendants

• Middle English: hire, hir, hyre, hyr, ire, ir, here, her, ere, er, heyre, heore, hare, hure, hur, hurre, huere
  • English: her
  • Scots: her
  • Yola: her

Declension

Descendants

• North Frisian: hör
• Saterland Frisian: hier
• West Frisian: har