profiteer
pronunciation
How to pronounce profiteer in British English:
UK [ˌprɒfɪ'tɪər]
How to pronounce profiteer in American English:
US [ˈprɑfɪˈtɪr]
-
- Noun:
- someone who makes excessive profit (especially on goods in short supply)
-
- Verb:
- make an unreasonable profit, as on the sale of difficult to obtain goods
Word Origin
- profiteer (v.)
- 1797, but dormant in English until it was revived in World War I, from profit + -eer. From 1912 as a noun. Related: Profiteering (1814). Or is it simply hysteria which produces what is to-day termed "the profiteer?" It is probable that the modern profiteer is the same person whom we formerly called "the grafter, the extortioner, the robber, the gouger." ["Legal Aid Review," April 1920]
Example
- 1. Nature is a short-term darwinian profiteer .
- 2. For many he would always be a traitor and a terrorist as well as an amoral profiteer .
- 3. You have called me a iiar and a thief and a war profiteer !
- 4. You are certainly a profiteer . Hopefully you will be as enterprising during our time working together .
- 5. At that time , the prices of many commodities are not the same in different places and cities in china , thus " profiteer " emerged who were criticized as " secondhand dealer " . They transported for long distance , speculated and earned the price difference .