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   occupy

   /ˈɒkjʊpʌɪ/

   verb

   • 1. reside or have one's place of business in (a building): "the rented flat she occupies in Hampstead" Similar live ininhabitbe the tenant oftenantlodge inbe established/ensconced inestablish/ensconce oneself intake up residence inmake one's home insettle inmove intopeoplepopulatesettlestay informal:reside indwell in
   • ▪ fill or take up (a space or time): "two long windows occupied almost the whole of the end wall" Similar take upfillfill upcoverextend overuse uputilize
   • ▪ 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" Similar holdbe infillhaveinformal:hold down
   • 2. fill or preoccupy (the mind): "her mind was occupied with alarming questions" Similar engagebusyemploydistractabsorbengrosspreoccupyholdhold the attention ofimmerseinterestinvolveentertaindivertamusebeguile
   • ▪ keep (someone) busy and active: "Sarah occupied herself taking the coffee cups over to the sink"
   • 3. take control of (a place, especially a country) by military conquest or settlement: "Syria was occupied by France under a League of Nations mandate" Similar captureseizetake possession ofconquerinvadeoverruntake overcolonizegarrisonannexdominatesubjugatehegemonizeholdcommandeerrequisitionOpposite leaveabandonquit
   • ▪ enter and stay in (a building) without authority and often forcibly, especially as a form of protest: "the workers occupied the factory"

   Word 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.

   Scrabble Points: 15

   • O

     1

   • C

     3

   • C

     3

   • U

     1

   • P

     3

   • Y

     4

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