padrone
Americannoun
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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:
Phil, the Fiddler is a memorial to a successful crusade that Alger led against the padrone system, by which hundreds of little street musicians, brought to Manhattan from Italy, were kept as virtual slaves.
From Time Magazine Archive
The little padrone was the passionate 18th's new-style ward boss and idol.
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
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
He was an enormous man and didn't look as nice as the "padrone."
From Italian Letters of a Diplomat's Life January-May, 1880; February-April, 1904 by Waddington, Mary Alsop King
The men uncovered their heads, as the noble padrones passed.
From The Title Market by Soper, J. H. Gardner
One of these padrones," Daddy said slowly, "is trying to get families to work in Florida.
From Across the Fruited Plain by Means, Florence Crannell
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 Grose, Howard B. (Howard Benjamin)
The steamship companies had to bear the expense of taking them back, but the padrones have not suffered any penalty, and will go on with their unlawful work.
From Aliens or Americans? by Grose, Howard B. (Howard Benjamin)
Past that overhanging cliff, with its tragic legend, they drove, encountering the long procession of wine carts, with their tinkling bells, and the dogs guarding the sleeping padrones.
From The Brownings Their Life and Art by Whiting, Lilian
"Can you tell me whether the padroni will go out to-day in the boat?"
From The Children of the King by Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
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 Commons, John R. (John Rogers)
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 Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
As we pass with the padrona of the hotel, who is a Bavarian, we stop to speak to our own padroni, the Di Paoli.
From Twilight in Italy by Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
"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 Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
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.
