ppl. a. [f. EMPLOY v. + -ED.] That is in (another’s) employ. Also absol. with pl. sense, the wage-earning class.
1625. Bacon, Ess. Travel. (Arb.), 523. The Secretaries, and Employd Men of Ambassadours.
1670. R. Coke, Disc. Trade, 55. You must do it as the imployed English please.
1818. Canning, in Parl. Deb., 964. An employed informer, and consequently a spy.
1860. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., III. cxxiv. 76. Attachment to the class of the employed, rather than of the employers.
Hence † Employedness, the condition of being seriously busy. Obs. rare–1.
a. 1691. Boyle, Wks., VI. 48 (R.). Rhetoric and care of language [are not] consistent with … employedness.
