Macmillan Dictionary

Did you know?

Click any word in a definition or example to find the entry for that word

occupy

 - definition
 
 
 
Close

What are red words?

90% of the time, speakers of English use just 7,500 words in speech and writing. These words appear in red, and are graded with stars. One-star words are frequent, two-star words are more frequent, and three-star words are the most frequent.

Close

Thesaurus

The thesaurus of synonyms and related words is fully integrated into the dictionary entries. Click on the T button in an entry to review the synonyms and related words for that meaning.

more
verb [transitive] American English pronunciation: occupy /ˈɑkjəˌpaɪ/ 
Word Forms
Close
present tense
I/you/we/theyoccupy
he/she/itoccupies
present participleoccupying
past tenseoccupied
past participleoccupied
 
  1. 1
    if someone occupies a room, building, area of land, seat, bed, or other place during a period of time, they use it

    The Smith family has occupied this farm for over a hundred years.

    All the seats on the bus were occupied.

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of occupy
    1. a.
      if something occupies a space or a period of time, it is present in it or fills it

      Warehouses occupied most of the site.

      Commercial photography occupied much of his time.

      Thesaurus entry for this meaning of occupy
  2. 2
    to be in control of a place that you have entered in a group using military force

    The region was quickly occupied by foreign troops.

    an occupying army/force

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of occupy
  4. 4
    to keep someone busy at an activity

    I need some way to occupy the kids for an hour.

    keep someone occupied:

    You keep him occupied down here while I check upstairs.

    be occupied with something:

    He's still fully occupied with writing his report.

    occupy yourself (with something):

    You need to find something to occupy yourself with when you retire.

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of occupy
  5. 5
    formal if something occupies your mind, thoughts, or attention, or if it occupies you, you think about it a lot

    These thoughts occupied my mind, though I tried to sleep.

    The problem has been occupying me all week.

    be occupied with something:

    My mind's been too occupied with moving to think about a vacation.

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of occupy

This is the American English definition of occupy. View British English definition of occupy.

Change your default dictionary and thesaurus to British English.

 

charticle

a news article that consists of a chart … and only has a small amount of text

BuzzWord Article

Word of the Day

proton

the part of the nucleus of an atom that has a positive electrical charge

Open Dictionary

never event

an event that should never occur in a healthcare setting …

add a word

Blog

A must for anyone with an interest in the changing face of language. The Macmillan Dictionary blog explores English as it is spoken around the world today.

global English and language change from our blog