OCCUPIED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does occupied mean? 

• OCCUPIED (adjective)
  The adjective OCCUPIED has 4 senses:

1. held or filled or in use

2. seized and controlled as by military invasion

3. resided in; having tenants

4. having ones attention or mind or energy engaged

  Familiarity information: OCCUPIED used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OCCUPIED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Held or filled or in use

Context example:

the wc is occupied

Similar:

busy; engaged; in use ((of facilities such as telephones or lavatories) unavailable for use by anyone else or indicating unavailability; ('engaged' is a British term for a busy telephone line))

filled ((of time) taken up)

Antonym:

unoccupied (not held or filled or in use)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Seized and controlled as by military invasion

Context example:

the occupied countries of Europe

Antonym:

unoccupied (not seized and controlled)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Resided in; having tenants

Synonyms:

occupied; tenanted

Context example:

not all the occupied (or tenanted) apartments were well kept up

Similar:

inhabited (having inhabitants; lived in)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Having ones attention or mind or energy engaged

Synonyms:

engaged; occupied

Context example:

deeply engaged in conversation

Similar:

busy (actively or fully engaged or occupied)

 Context examples 

I wore away the longest part of many wild sad nights, in those rides; reviving, as I went, the thoughts that had occupied me in my long absence.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Occupied in observing Mr. Bingley's attentions to her sister, Elizabeth was far from suspecting that she was herself becoming an object of some interest in the eyes of his friend.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

But when Buck finished his ration and returned, he found his nest occupied.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

But I was too occupied to acknowledge her delight.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

If I may state my intellectual position I am, so far as concerns things purely terrestrial, somewhat in the position which Enoch occupied spiritually!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

"Now, he has his back towards me," thought I, "and he is occupied too; perhaps, if I walk softly, I can slip away unnoticed."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Anne hoped the gentlemen might each be too much self-occupied to hear.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

He had been over this ground before, when it was bare, but now a village occupied it.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Zambo occupied our little tent at the base of the pinnacle, and there he remained, our one link with the world below.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But this cabin alone had I found occupied, and in this cabin, perforce, I took my shelter.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)