profiteer

[prof-i-teer]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR profiteer ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a person who seeks or exacts exorbitant profits, especially through the sale of scarce or rationed goods.

verb (used without object)

to act as a profiteer.

Origin of profiteer

First recorded in 1910–15; profit + -eer

Related formsan·ti·prof·i·teer·ing, adjectivenon·prof·it·eer·ing, nounun·prof·it·eer·ing, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for profiteering

Contemporary Examples of profiteering

The next thing I expect is some sort of profiteering off this.
'Celebrity Rehab' Counselor: Mindy McCready Won't Be the Last
Maer Roshan
February 26, 2013
One could almost forget the illegality, the profiteering, the recklessness, and the endless casualties.
Christopher Hitchens: A Young Contrarian Salutes Him
Max McGuinness
December 18, 2011
To be profiteering by capitalizing on visits with a young woman in prison seems inappropriate for a member of parliament.
Knox's Powerful Fan
Barbie Latza Nadeau
October 20, 2010
Art collectors were spivvy and profiteering even during the Renaissance.
Charles Saatchi Answers Your Questions
The Daily Beast
May 31, 2010

Historical Examples of profiteering

These decreases have come out of the elimination of speculation and profiteering.
Herbert Hoover
Vernon Kellogg
Such changes do not come under the category of profiteering.
Herbert Hoover
Vernon Kellogg
There are three kinds of speculation and profiteering in the food trades.
Herbert Hoover
Vernon Kellogg
I should hope to tell you; he is a butcher who has been arrested three times for profiteering.
Jokes For All Occasions
Anonymous
This business of profiteering by the natives is no new phase of life in the Congo.
An African Adventure
Isaac F. Marcosson

British Dictionary definitions for profiteering

profiteer

noun

a person who makes excessive profits, esp by charging exorbitant prices for goods in short supply

verb

(intr) to make excessive profits

Derived Formsprofiteering, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for profiteering

profiteer

1797, but dormant in English until it was revived in World War I, from profit + -eer. From 1912 as a noun. Related: Profiteering (1814).

Or is it simply hysteria which produces what is to-day termed "the profiteer?" It is probable that the modern profiteer is the same person whom we formerly called "the grafter, the extortioner, the robber, the gouger." ["Legal Aid Review," April 1920]