profit motive

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noun

the desire for profit that motivates one to engage in business ventures.

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Origin of profit motive

First recorded in 1930–35

Words nearby profit motive

profit centre, profiteer, profiteering, profiterole, profit margin, profit motive, profit sharing, profit squeeze, profit taking, profit warning, profligacy

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use profit motive in a sentence

These are not inevitable outcomes, they are human decisions, and they are almost always made by people who are driven by a profit motive that tends to exploit the poor and working class historically.
Robots were supposed to take our jobs. Instead, they’re making them worse.|Emily Stewart|July 2, 2021|Vox
Earlier this week, the company earned a spot for the second year in a row on Fortune’s Change the World list, which features companies that leverage the profit motive to tackle urgent social problems.
‘No water, no beer, right?’ AB InBev CEO Carlos Brito on keeping a brewing giant focused on sustainability|matthewheimer|September 22, 2020|Fortune
Together, the teams are working 24 hours a day for a product that promises much higher risk than it does profit.
The Race for the Ebola Vaccine|Abby Haglage|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
She is using this technique, which generations of African-Americans have used for survival, for fame and profit.
The Cultural Crimes of Iggy Azalea|Amy Zimmerman|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Marx forecast that the profit motive would lead to overworking and exhausting the fertility of our soil and other natural systems.
American Democracy Under Threat for 250 Years|Jedediah Purdy|December 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Albuquerque Economic Development, a private non-profit, estimates the five year growth rate at almost double the U.S. in general.
After The Fall: Introducing The Anti-Villain|Rich Goldstein|December 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Will Christian pharmacists, county clerks, florists, and for-profit wedding chapels really withdraw from society, as you describe?
Do LGBTs Owe Christians an Olive Branch? Try The Other Way Around|Jay Michaelson|December 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The voice of the orator peculiarly should be free from studied effects, and responsive to motive.
Expressive Voice Culture|Jessie Eldridge Southwick
Not suspecting her motive, he represented the hazard of putting so great an affront on the favourite of the Empress.
The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 3 of 4|Jane Porter
Nearly all our great intervales might be irrigated immensely to the profit of their cultivators.
Glances at Europe|Horace Greeley
There was a great comparing of papers, and turning over of leaves, by Fogg and Perker, after this statement of profit and loss.
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, v. 2(of 2)|Charles Dickens
My children, keep discipline in peace: for wisdom that is hid, and a treasure that is not seen, what profit is there in them both?
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version|Various

Cultural definitions for profit motive

profit motive

The ability to earn profits as the reason for producers to make and sell goods.

notes for profit motive

The profit motive is often called a great good or a great evil in society. On the one hand, it is said to represent selfishness; on the other, it is said to drive the free market system. (See invisible hand.)