occupying


oc·cu·py

O0022000 (ŏk′yə-pī′)tr.v. oc·cu·pied, oc·cu·py·ing, oc·cu·pies 1. To fill up (time or space): a lecture that occupied three hours.2. To dwell or reside in (an apartment, for example).3. To hold or fill (an office or position).4. To seize possession of and maintain control over forcibly or by conquest: The troops occupied the city.5. To engage or employ the attention or concentration of: occupied the children with coloring books.
[Middle English occupien, alteration of Old French occuper, from Latin occupāre, to seize : ob-, intensive pref.; see ob- + capere, to take; see kap- in Indo-European roots.]
oc′cu·pi′er n.