dealer
Americannoun
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a person who buys and sells articles without altering their condition; trader or merchant, especially a wholesaler.
I got a dealer's discount on this coat.
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Cards. the player distributing the cards.
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a person who behaves or acts toward another or others in a specified manner.
a plain dealer.
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Slang. a person who buys and sells drugs illegally.
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a person who buys securities for their own account and retains them until sold to another.
noun
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a person or firm engaged in commercial purchase and sale; trader
a car dealer
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cards the person who distributes the cards
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slang a person who sells illegal drugs
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of dealer
First recorded before 1000; Middle English delere, Old English dǣlere. See deal 1, -er 1
Explanation
Anyone whose job (or hobby) involves buying and reselling something is a dealer. If you buy candy in bulk and sell it to your friends at a profit, you can call yourself a candy dealer. Sometimes this term implies that the goods being sold are illegal or illicit. It's even more commonly used to describe people who sell art, cars, or antiques. If you play poker with your friends and it's your turn to hand out the cards, you're also a dealer. This meaning, a player who passes out the cards in a game, dates from 1600.
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.
The Swedish currency at the time was the daler, essentially a copper plate.
From Forbes • Jun. 15, 2015
The dollar is the Low Ger. daler, for Ger.
From The Romance of Words (4th ed.) by Weekley, Ernest
And besides, it's only one o'clock… Listen," she went on with sparkling eyes, "you gave our boatmen five daler for saving my shoe.
From Pan by Hamsun, Knut
"And you were given five daler for saving it?"
From Pan by Hamsun, Knut
The Danish King had made Egede missionary to the Greenlanders on a salary of three hundred daler a year, the same amount which Egede himself contributed of his scant store toward the equipment.
From Hero Tales of the Far North by Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
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.
