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occupy

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verb [transitive] British English pronunciation: occupy /ˈɒkjʊpaɪ/ 
Word Forms
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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 have 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 house to think about a holiday.

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of occupy

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

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View the pronunciation for occupy.

 

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