nabob
Americannoun
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any very wealthy, influential, or powerful person.
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Also a person, especially a European, who has made a large fortune in India or another country of the East.
noun
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informal a rich, powerful, or important man
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(formerly) a European who made a fortune in the Orient, esp in India
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another name for a nawab
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of nabob
From the Hindi word nawāb, dating back to 1605–15. See nawab
Vocabulary lists containing nabob
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.
His work quickly made him controversial among civic boosters, who dismissed him as a negative nabob who didn’t want the city to thrive.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 15, 2025
This doesn’t sound like a con artist or a relentlessly negative nabob.
From Washington Post • Jun. 22, 2021
In 1992 Manchester City was owned by the Football Association nabob and hi-fi entrepreneur Peter Swales.
From The Guardian • Jul. 29, 2017
The building was constructed precisely to overawe foreigners, and it is difficult not to feel small beneath the 10ft-tall painting of an Indian nabob that Lord Carrington had hung on the wall.
From BBC • May 14, 2013
He was a rich man now, a nabob beginning from to-day.
From St. Peter's Umbrella by Mikszáth, Kálmán
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.
