عَسِيفٌ

A hired man; a hireling: (S, Mgh, O, Msb, K:) or a slave who is held in light, or mean, estimation, or in contempt: (O, L, TA:) in the K, المُسْتَعَانُ بِهِ is erroneously put for المُسْتَهَانُ بِهِ, the reading in the O and L: (TA:) a poet says, (O,) namely, Nubeyh Ibn-El-Hajjáj, (TA,)

أَطَعْتُ النَّفْسَ فِى الشَّهَوَاتِ حَتَّى

أَعَادَتْنِى عَسِيفًا عَبْدَ عَبْدِ

[I obeyed the soul in respect of appetites until it rendered me a despised bondman, a slave of a slave]: (O, TA:) it is of the measure فَعِيلٌ in the sense of the measure فَاعِلٌ, from عَسَفَ لَهُ meaning “ he worked for him; ” or in the sense of the measure مَفْعُولٌ, from عَسَفَهُ meaning “ he took him as a servant: ” (K: [and the like is said in the O:]) plural عُسَفَاءُ (S, Mgh, O, Msb) and عِسَفَةٌ, which latter is anomalous. (TA.)