hire

Everyday

1. To hire is to pay to use something for a time (UK), like hiring a boat or bikes; in the USA people usually say «rent». tree →
2. To hire someone is to give them a job and pay them. tree →
3. Hire is paying to use something: «bike hire», «for hire». tree →

In the lessons

paying for time: cost per hour × hours; workers hired; in everyday life: hiring bikes at the park, a car hire for a holiday, «for hire» on a taxi; in jobs: a company hires new workers; phrases: «for hire», «hire out», «car hire»

Examples

• They hire a boat for $15 an hour. tree →
• The shop hires 3 new workers. tree →
• How much to hire bikes for 4 hours? tree →
• A bus is hired for the trip. tree →
• We hired a canoe on the lake. tree →
• The taxi light shows it is for hire. tree →
• The school hired a new music teacher. tree →
• They hire out their hall for parties. tree →

Note

Cost = rate × time; often plus a fixed fee. Workers hired add to the staff. Homophone: «higher» sounds the same. UK «hire a car» = US «rent a car».

In Jewish tradition

Wages paid to a worker, or paying a worker. A hired servant was a paid worker, not a member of the family. It can also mean paying soldiers, and the prophet uses it of Ephraim "hiring lovers", paying other nations for help.

Interpretation. The Torah commands paying a worker on the same day, and tradition counts delaying wages as a wrong. Hosea's "hired lovers" is read as Israel buying alliances with foreign powers instead of trusting God.

Examples

• A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof. (Torah EXO.12.45, JPS 1917) tree →
• And Leah said: 'God hath given me my hire, because I gave my handmaid to my husband. (Torah GEN.30.18, JPS 1917) tree →
• If the owner thereof be with it, he shall not make it good; if it be a hireling, he loseth his hire. (Torah EXO.22.15, JPS 1917) tree →
• For they are gone up to Assyria, like a wild ass alone by himself; Ephraim hath hired lovers. (Prophets HOS.8.9, JPS 1917) tree →
• He hired also a hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of Israel for a hundred talents of silver. (Writings 2CH.25.6, JPS 1917) tree →
• So they hired them thirty and two thousand chariots, and the king of Maacah and his people; who came and encamped before Medeba. (Writings 1CH.19.7, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Cost = rate × time; often plus a fixed fee. Workers hired add to the staff. Homophone: «higher» sounds the same. UK «hire a car» = US «rent a car».