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• bean counter
  bean counter

  noun

  an accountant or other financial officer, often one placing undue importance on spending, financial accountability, and profit, or anyone regarded as having a reductively quantitative focus.
• bean-counter
  bean-counter

  noun

  an accountant

bean counter

American  

[been koun-ter] / ˈbin ˌkaʊn tər /

Or bean-counter

noun

Sometimes Disparaging.

1. an accountant or other financial officer, often one placing undue importance on spending, financial accountability, and profit, or anyone regarded as having a reductively quantitative focus.

   If it were up to the bean counters, this company would never take risks or innovate.

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bean-counter British  

noun

1. informal an accountant

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Etymology

Origin of bean counter

An Americanism first recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bean counter bean-counter

The current CEO is a bean counter who does not seem to understand the complexity of the process and doesn’t live in Washington state, where the bulk of the work is still done.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 26, 2024

Mr. Glassman might be an effective bean counter, but that is not nearly enough to justify his having a seat on the Maryland Board of Public Works.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 21, 2022

It would not bother me in the least to give my niece the higher amount, because I’m not a bean counter.

From Slate ● May 26, 2021

There no bean counter with a backbone stiff enough to hold the reins.

From Washington Times ● May 23, 2019

Sorrento is an autocratic bean counter, a would-be master of the universe who doesn’t even like video games.

From New York Times ● Mar. 28, 2018

Balding and bespectacled, with a greying beard, Vought's public statements typically have the measured cadence of a bean-counter or professor.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2025

League bean-counter, penciling out the unsportsmanlike-conduct tally: “Two bits, four bits, six bits … $12,875.”

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 28, 2022

An accountant who had to keep his day job during the tough Depression years, many say the dour, dogged Reshevsky played chess like the conscientious bean-counter he was.

From Washington Times ● Apr. 10, 2018

Medical doctors are raging against the arbitrary patient surveys and bean-counter intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship.

From New York Times ● May 19, 2017

Chad Hardeman: I assume the firm will have to bring in a bean-counter type to perform Lane's CFO functions.

From Slate ● Jun. 4, 2012