hire

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the act of engaging something or someone for a service

   I signed up for a week's car hire.

2. 2
   noun

   a newly hired employee

   the new hires need special training

3. 3
   verb

   engage or hire for work

   They hired two new secretaries in the department

4. 4
   noun

   A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort.

   We pair up each of our new hires with one of our original hires.

5. 5
   noun

   The state of being hired, or having a job; employment.

   When my grandfather retired, he had over twenty mechanics in his hire.

6. 6
   noun

   Payment for the temporary use of something.

   The sign offered pedalos on hire.

7. 7
   noun

   Reward.

   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?

8. 8
   verb

   To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.

   We hired a car for two weeks because ours had broken down.

Etymology

From Middle English hire, hyre, here, hure, from Old English hȳr (“employment for wages; pay for service; interest on money lent”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūʀiju (“payment”), from the verb *hūʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *hūzijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *kewHs- or *kweHs-. Compare Hittite 𒆪𒊭𒀭 (kuššan-, “fee, pay, wages, price”). Cognate with West Frisian hier (“hire”), Dutch huur (“lease, rental”), German Low German Hüür (“lease, rental”).