Employ someone else as a model (7)

I believe the answer is:

imitate

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'model' is the definition.
(I know that model is a more specific form of the action imitate)

I cannot understand how the remainder of the clue works.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for imitate that I've seen before include "Fake" , "I ate Tim! (anag.)" , "Follow suit" , "I tame it to copy it" , "'Ape, copy (7)'" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.

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