middleman

[mid-l-man]

noun

plural

middlemen 

1. a person who plays an economic role intermediate between producer and retailer or consumer.

2. a person who acts as an intermediary.

middleman

/ ˈmɪdəlˌmæn /

noun

1. an independent trader engaged in the distribution of goods from producer to consumer

2. an intermediary

3. theatre the interlocutor in minstrel shows

Word History and Origins

Origin of middleman¹

1400–50; late Middle English: maker of girdles; middle, man

Example Sentences

The country had a reputation as a marketplace where local middlemen paid impoverished mothers to hand over their infants.

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They explain that intermediaries, or middlemen, may offer them as little as $5.50 per bag, but after paying for thread and transport, they often earn as little as $1.50 - excluding the time spent weaving.

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The travel certificates showed how a network of resellers replaced pet stores as middlemen while disguising where puppies were actually bred.

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But in recent decades, something more controversial has emerged in the US: a network of for-profit businesses that act as middlemen, acquiring bodies from individuals, dissecting them, and then selling them on.

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She's also known to cut out the middleman, illustrated in her decision to go directly to AMC Theatres to release The Eras Tour concert film rather than distributing it through a studio.

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Related Words

• go-between 
• mediator 
• wholesaler