occupy

 
Pronunciation: /ˈɒkjʊpʌɪ/

verb (occupies, occupying, occupied)

[with object]
  • 1reside or have one’s place of business in (a building): the rented flat she occupies in Hampstead
  • 2fill or take up (a space or time): two long windows occupied almost the whole of the end wall
  • be situated in or at (a position in a system or hierarchy): the Bank of England occupies a central position in the UK financial system
  • hold (a position or job): a very different job from any that he had occupied before
  • 3fill or preoccupy (the mind): her mind was occupied with alarming questions
  • keep (someone) busy and active: Sarah occupied herself taking the coffee cups over to the sink
  • 4take control of (a place, especially a country) by military conquest or settlement: Syria was occupied by France under a League of Nations mandate
  • enter and stay in (a building) without authority and often forcibly, especially as a form of protest: the workers occupied the factory

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

Spelling help

Spell occupy with a double c.