empire builder
noun
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
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empire-builder
empire-buildernouna person who seeks extra power for its own sake, esp by increasing the number of his subordinates or staff
empire builder
Americannoun
empire-builder
British
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of empire builder
First recorded in 1890–95
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.
See Examples For:
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
He was a mighty empire builder out of an Ayn Rand novel, biding his time amid the weaklings and plotting his revenge.
From New York Times ● Jul. 24, 2013
He reminds me more of E. H. Harriman than of any other American empire builder that I have met, and like Harriman he seems to be incessantly bound up to the telephone.
From An African Adventure by Isaac Frederick Marcosson
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
Millicent, however, after her first joy on hearing that the path which would ultimately lead her to the altar with an empire-builder was open to her, grew sad.
From Happy Pollyooly The Rich Little Poor Girl by Edgar Jepson
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