cartel
[kahr-tel]
- an international syndicate, combine, or trust formed especially to regulate prices and output in some field of business.
- a coalition of political or special-interest groups having a common cause, as to encourage the passage of a certain law.
- a written agreement between belligerents, especially for the exchange of prisoners.
- a written challenge to a duel.
Origin of cartel
1550–60; < Middle French < Italian cartello letter of defiance, poster, equivalent to cart(a) carte + -ello diminutive suffix
Synonyms
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com1. monopoly, merger, combination.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for cartel
Contemporary Examples
How do you feel about Archer and the gang abandoning the cartel and returning to the office?
‘Archer’ Creator Adam Reed Spills Season 6 Secrets, From Surreal Plotlines to Life Post-ISISMarlow Stern
January 8, 2015
In the meantime, there is talk that with El Chapo in prison the Sinaloa cartel has a new leader.
The notorious Sinaloa cartel boss is trying to use Mexican law to get himself out of jail—and it just might work.
And he was not the only Sinaloa cartel informant to suffer an abrupt reversal of fortune with ICE.
I mean, it just happened to be that the Juárez cartel was—that was the case we were working on at the time.
Historical Examples
Sir Lucius was not out of sight when the Duke had finished reading his cartel.
The Young DukeBenjamin Disraeli
We have been engaged a long time in negotiating a cartel of exchange.
When this cartel fell into my hands it lacked but an hour of sunset.
Captain CanotBrantz Mayer
The Escribano was demanded in exchange, according to the cartel.
Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7Charles H. Sylvester
A brig was chartered as a cartel, on board of which the Frenchmen were at once sent.
From Powder Monkey to AdmiralW.H.G. Kingston
cartel
- Also called: trust a collusive international association of independent enterprises formed to monopolize production and distribution of a product or service, control prices, etc
- politics an alliance of parties or interests to further common aims
Word Origin
C20: from German Kartell, from French, from Italian cartello a written challenge, public notice, diminutive of carta card 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for cartel
n.
1550s, "a written challenge," from Middle French cartel (16c.), from Italian cartello "placard," diminutive of carta "card" (see card (n.1)). It came to mean "written agreement between challengers" (1690s) and then "a written agreement between challengers" (1889). Sense of "a commercial trust, an association of industrialists" comes 1902, via German Kartell, which is from French. The older U.S. term for that is trust (n.). The usual German name for them was Interessengemeinschaft, abbreviated IG.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
cartel
[(kahr-tel)]
An association in which producers of a similar or identical product try to obtain a monopoly over the sale of the product.
Note
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a cartel.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.