lucre
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of lucre
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin lucrum profit; akin to Old English lēan reward, German Lohn, Gothic, Old Norse laun
Explanation
Lucre is another word for money, or profit. It's most often used to describe money gotten illegally or immorally. Well-heeled bankers and lawyers make profits; drug dealers and bank robbers get filthy, rotten lucre. You might think of lucre as the term that gets at the dark side of capitalism. Some people will do anything in the pursuit of lucre. Political groups that call Hollywood immoral still accept the lucre that it offers. We all love money, except when it causes us to do terrible things to ourselves and others. Then it's lucre.
Vocabulary lists containing lucre
Jane Eyre
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This Week In Words: November 2–8, 2019
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Challenge, List 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
On Sunday, 23 June 1996, 30,000 punks had gathered in Finsbury Park for the Sex Pistols' Filthy Lucre reunion tour.
From BBC • Jul. 15, 2024
They called their dates the Filthy Lucre Tour.
From The Guardian • Nov. 6, 2018
You can’t really congratulate yourself for ferreting out the moral of Christian fighting his way through the fancy city of Vanity Fair or the mining town named Lucre.
From Slate • May 3, 2016
The night features an appearance by BETTY, the iconic D.C.-born, New York-based band that created the soundtrack for "Filthy Lucre," and a chance for visitors to make their own art.
From Washington Post • May 6, 2015
“The farthest, yonder,” said he, “is called Pride, the eldest daughter of Belial; the second is Pleasure; and Lucre is the next to us: these three are the trinity which the world adores.”
From The Sleeping Bard or, Visions of the World, Death, and Hell by Borrow, George Henry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
