padrone
Americannoun
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padrones,
plural
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padroni
plural
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a master; boss.
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an employer, especially of immigrant laborers, who provides communal housing and eating arrangements, controls the allocation of pay, etc., in a manner that exploits the workers.
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an innkeeper.
noun
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the owner or proprietor of an inn, esp in Italy
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an employer who completely controls his workers, esp a man who exploits Italian immigrants in the US
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of padrone
From Italian, dating back to 1660–70; see origin at patron
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:
The bank should satisfy the critical eye of its padrone.
From Time Magazine Archive
A. In a marriage there is always a padrone, a master, and it is not necessarily the man.
From Time Magazine Archive
His padrone, disgusted, spells out what awaits him: "Go make pizzas."
From Time Magazine Archive
Best shots : Miss Daniels in her metal dress; a Mexican padrone respect fully kissing a moneyed young man be cause he takes him to be a safecracker.
From Time Magazine Archive
"No," replied Jeli, "it's only two onze and a half, because you left the cows more than a month ago, and one must be fair to one's padrone."
From Under the Shadow of Etna Sicilian Stories from the Italian of Giovanni Verga by Giovanni Verga
He thought of last year's grape-harvest ruined by a thunderstorm, the frightful poverty of the peasants under the thumb of the padrones.
From Dreamers of the Ghetto by Israel Zangwill
One of the padrones intercepted these notifications and sold them to the men for five dollars apiece, making also the usual bargain for a share of their wages.
From Democracy and Social Ethics by Jane Addams
There is also a Boston Italian Society, organized in 1902, to protect newcomers from sharpers, thieves, and fraudulent persons; also from the frauds of bankers and padrones.
From Aliens or Americans? by Howard B. (Howard Benjamin) Grose
The men admitted that the padrones had paid their passage and agreed to furnish them work.
From Aliens or Americans? by Howard B. (Howard Benjamin) Grose
Commissioner Watchorn had word from his special investigators abroad that the men had been collected in the Balkan States to work for padrones in this country.
From Aliens or Americans? by Howard B. (Howard Benjamin) Grose
Then the padroni will have eaten and the rocks will be covered with crabs, and the moon will not be yet risen.
From The Children of the King by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
"You have a beautiful pair of padroni, you and your brother," observed Nennè, making a hideous face over the boat's side.
From The Children of the King by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
When the provveditore was present at solemn functions a bench was placed for him and the "padroni," as well as for the authorities of the Castelli and the colonel of the district.
From The Shores of the Adriatic The Austrian Side, The Küstenlande, Istria, and Dalmatia by F. Hamilton (Frederick Hamilton) Jackson
"Can you tell me whether the padroni will go out to-day in the boat?"
From The Children of the King by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
Since the alien contract-labor law does not apply to immigrants from Hawaii, a padroni system has sprung up for importing Japanese from that island.
From Races and Immigrants in America by John R. (John Rogers) Commons
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.
