Wiktionary

hire

See also: Hire, híre, and hirê

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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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-. Compare Hittite 𒆪𒊭𒀭 (kuššan-, “fee, pay, wages, price”).

Cognate with West Frisian hier (“hire”), Dutch huur (“lease, rental”), German Low German Hüür (“lease, rental”).

Noun

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hire (countable and uncountable, plural hires)

  1. (countable) A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort.
    We pair up each of our new hires with one of our original hires.
    • 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.
  2. (uncountable) The state of being hired, or having a job; employment.
    Synonym: employ
    When my grandfather retired, he had over twenty mechanics in his hire.
  3. (uncountable) Payment for the temporary use of something.
    The sign offered pedalos on hire.
  4. (uncountable, obsolete) Reward.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English hiren, hyren, from Old English hȳrian (“to hire”), from the noun (see above). Compare West Frisian hiere (“to rent, lease”), Dutch huren (“to rent, lease”), Low German hüren (“to rent”), Danish hyre (“to hire”).

Eclipsed Middle English souden (“to hire, employ, enlist”), borrowed from Old French souder, soudre, souldre (“to take into employ, pay”); see English sold (“salary, military pay”).

Verb

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hire (third-person singular simple present hires, present participle hiring, simple past and past participle hired)

  1. (transitive, chiefly UK) To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.
    Synonym: rent
    We hired a car for two weeks because ours had broken down.
    • 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.”
  2. (transitive, chiefly UK) 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.
  3. (transitive) 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.
  4. (transitive) To exchange the services of for remuneration.
    They hired themselves out as day laborers.  They hired out their basement for Inauguration week.
  5. (transitive, chiefly UK) To accomplish by paying for services.
    After waiting two years for her husband to finish the tiling, she decided to hire it done.
  6. (intransitive) To accept employment.
    They hired out as day laborers.
  7. (transitive) (neologism) (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.
Conjugation
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Conjugation of hire
infinitive (to) hire
present tense past tense
1st-person singular hire hired
2nd-person singular hire, hirest† hired, hiredst†
3rd-person singular hires, hireth† hired
plural hire
subjunctive hire hired
imperative hire —
participles hiring hired

†Archaic or obsolete.

Antonyms
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  • (antonym(s) of “to employ”): fire
Derived terms
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Terms derived from hire (verb)
Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
See also
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Anagrams

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Abron

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Etymology

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From Akan hyire (“white clay”).

Noun

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hire

  1. white clay

References

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  • Trutenau, Languages of the Akan Area: Papers in Western Kwa Linguistics (1976)

Basque

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): (Southern) /iɾe/, [i.ɾe̞]
  • IPA(key): (Northern) /hiɾe/, [ɦi.ɾe̞]

Pronoun

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hire

  1. genitive of hi, your

Japanese

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Romanization

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hire

  1. Rōmaji transcription of ひれ

Middle Dutch

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Contraction

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hire

  1. Contraction of hi dāer.

Middle English

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Etymology 1

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From Old English hire (“her”), from Proto-West Germanic *heʀā, *hiʀā, from Proto-Germanic *hezōz, genitive feminine singular of *hiz (“this”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe (“here; this”).

Alternative forms

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Determiner

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hire (nominative pronoun sche)

  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)
Synonyms
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Descendants
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  • English: her
  • Scots: her
  • Yola: her
See also
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Middle English personal pronouns
nominative accusative dative genitive possessive
singular 1st-person I, ich, ik me min
mi1		 min
2nd-person þou þe þin
þi1		 þin
3rd-person m he him
hine2		 him his his
hisen
f sche, heo hire
heo 		hire hire
hires, hiren
n hit hit
him2		 his, hit —
dual3 1st-person wit unk unker
2nd-person ȝit inc inker
plural 1st-person we us, ous oure oure
oures, ouren
2nd-person4 ye yow your your
youres, youren
3rd-person inh. he hem
he2		 hem here here
heres, heren
bor. þei þem, þeim þeir þeir
þeires, þeiren

1Used preconsonantally or before h.
2Early or dialectal.
3Dual pronouns are only sporadically found in Early Middle English; after that, they are replaced by plural forms. There are no third-person dual forms in Middle English.
4Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

Pronoun

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hire (nominative sche)

  2. Third-person singular feminine genitive pronoun: hers.
Synonyms
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References
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Etymology 2

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From Old English hire (“her”), from Proto-West Germanic *heʀē, *hiʀē, from Proto-Germanic *hezōi, dative feminine singular of *hiz (“this”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe (“here; this”).

Pronoun

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hire (nominative sche)

  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.
Descendants
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See also
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Middle English personal pronouns
nominative accusative dative genitive possessive
singular 1st-person I, ich, ik me min
mi1		 min
2nd-person þou þe þin
þi1		 þin
3rd-person m he him
hine2		 him his his
hisen
f sche, heo hire
heo 		hire hire
hires, hiren
n hit hit
him2		 his, hit —
dual3 1st-person wit unk unker
2nd-person ȝit inc inker
plural 1st-person we us, ous oure oure
oures, ouren
2nd-person4 ye yow your your
youres, youren
3rd-person inh. he hem
he2		 hem here here
heres, heren
bor. þei þem, þeim þeir þeir
þeires, þeiren

1Used preconsonantally or before h.
2Early or dialectal.
3Dual pronouns are only sporadically found in Early Middle English; after that, they are replaced by plural forms. There are no third-person dual forms in Middle English.
4Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

References
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Etymology 3

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From Old English hȳr, from Proto-West Germanic *hūʀiju. The final vowel is generalised from the Old English oblique cases.

Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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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.)‎[1], published c. 1410, Petre ·ii· 2:15, page 113v, 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.
  4. A payment; a charge.
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Descendants
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References
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Etymology 4

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Noun

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hire

  1. Alternative form of here (“army”)

Etymology 5

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Verb

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hire

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

Norwegian Nynorsk

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Adjective

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hire

  1. neuter singular of hiren

Old English

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Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈxi.re/, [ˈhi.re]

Pronoun

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hire

  1. genitive/dative of hēo

Descendants

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