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:
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
By this time the Old Man has been transmogrified into a wise and mellow padrone, and the story shifts a generation.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
His padrone, disgusted, spells out what awaits him: "Go make pizzas."
From Time Magazine Archive
One afternoon when we came in from driving everybody in the street was looking hard at the mountain and the padrone informed us that the eruption had begun.
From Italian Letters of a Diplomat's Life January-May, 1880; February-April, 1904 by Mary Alsop King Waddington
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
One of these padrones," Daddy said slowly, "is trying to get families to work in Florida.
From Across the Fruited Plain by Florence Crannell Means
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 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
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 Lilian Whiting
"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
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 D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence
A determined warfare was declared against the Italian padroni, who thrive upon the toil of the little unfortunates to whom they pretend to teach music, and whom they utilize as peddlers and chimney-sweepers.
From The Bay State Monthly — Volume 2, No. 2, November, 1884 by Various
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
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
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