occupy
definition
to be busy doing an activity
example
Parents who work from home find it difficult to find activities to occupy their children for more than an hour.
synonyms
fillemploytake up
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