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• empire builder
  empire builder

  noun

  a person who plans or works to extend dominion or control, as over territory, political organizations, or business enterprises.
• empire-builder
  empire-builder

  noun

  a person who seeks extra power for its own sake, esp by increasing the number of his subordinates or staff

empire builder

American  

noun

1. a person who plans or works to extend dominion or control, as over territory, political organizations, or business enterprises.

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empire-builder British  

noun

1. informal a person who seeks extra power for its own sake, esp by increasing the number of his subordinates or staff

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Other Word Forms

• empire-building
  noun

Etymology

Origin of empire builder

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

empire builder empire-builder

CEO and controlling shareholder Brian Roberts has been viewed as an empire builder, but that could be changing.

From Barron's ● Dec. 12, 2025

The shard of pottery in question was discovered by a passerby last December and caused a sensation as the first mention of sixth century B.C. empire builder to appear in Israel.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 3, 2023

His notion of fast-casual mirrors that of Italian empire builder Fabio Trabocchi, another discerning Washington tastemaker.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 25, 2022

But at that point, there was not even a whiff of the billion-dollar empire builder that Federer would soon become.

From New York Times ● Aug. 25, 2021

The tireless empire builder was again on the Pacific Coast in 1858.

From The Story of Russia by R. Van Bergen

Barely two months after the paper’s owner and publisher, the L.A. empire-builder Harrison Gray Otis, had taken over the paper, he ran this florid apologia for the meager, capricious river:

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2022

And then there’s that dialectical puzzler, Steven Spielberg, the wunderkind turned empire-builder, who has long played the hero and the villain of modern Hollywood.

From New York Times ● Jul. 2, 2020

Zimbabwe began life as a colony of the British South African Company in the late 19th Century, run by the British empire-builder, Cecil Rhodes.

From BBC ● Nov. 15, 2017

For centuries it was a steppingstone between Europe and the Middle East, with almost every East Mediterranean empire-builder — Persians, Romans, Venetians, Ottomans — passing through a t one time or another.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 13, 2015

In our own time we have seen how the greatest empire-builder of Victorian history, Cecil John Rhodes, came into prominence because he was sent to South Africa for the cure of weak lungs.

From William Shakespeare His Homes and Haunts by A. (Amédée) Forestier