padrone
Americannoun
plural
padrones,plural
padroni-
a master; boss.
-
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.
-
an innkeeper.
noun
-
the owner or proprietor of an inn, esp in Italy
-
an employer who completely controls his workers, esp a man who exploits Italian immigrants in the US
Other Word Forms
- padronism noun
Etymology
Origin of padrone
From Italian, dating back to 1660–70; 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.
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
His padrone, disgusted, spells out what awaits him: "Go make pizzas."
From Time Magazine Archive
The bank should satisfy the critical eye of its padrone.
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
The padrone in his dress clothes was waiting at the foot of the stairs and conducted us with much pomp into the dining-room, where we found a nice round table in the window.
From Italian Letters of a Diplomat's Life January-May, 1880; February-April, 1904 by Waddington, Mary Alsop King
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.
