profiteer
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of profiteer
Explanation
To profiteer is to take advantage of a situation or a person in order to make money. A landlord might profiteer during a housing shortage by doubling rents. When you profiteer, you don't just profit — you profit more than you should at the expense of someone else. You can also call a person who does this a profiteer. Profiteers famously take advantage of things like scarce food or ongoing conflicts to make a lot of money. The word existed but wasn't commonly used in English until World War I, when journalists started talking about "war profiteers" who benefited financially from shortages and desperation.
Vocabulary lists containing profiteer
Chapter 5: The American Revolution, Lessons 3–5
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Bull Run
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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.
SKW's CEO Carsten Franzke says that the company is not a "war profiteer" and will probably just break even once soaring energy costs are also taken into account.
From Barron's • May 3, 2026
They also would risk casting Saudi Arabia in the role of profiteer in a war it didn’t start.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 20, 2026
Mr Brown said organisers were "naturally disappointed" that some had "decided to try to profiteer" from Liverpool's staging of the event.
From BBC • Oct. 9, 2022
Meanwhile, Philadelphia abruptly cut off a vaccine clinic operator amid concerns that it had sought to profiteer from the work.
From Washington Times • Jan. 26, 2021
Oskar Schindler has been called many names: scoundrel, womanizer, war profiteer, drunk.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
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.
