profiteer
[prof-i-teer]
- a person who seeks or exacts exorbitant profits, especially through the sale of scarce or rationed goods.
Show More
- to act as a profiteer.
Show More
Origin of profiteer
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
unscrupulous, crooked, shady, rotten, fraudulent, nefarious, venal, unethical, untrustworthy, fraud, nepotism, crime, exploitation, malfeasance, extortion, graft, bribery, debauched, reprobate, bentExamples from the Web for profiteering
Contemporary Examples
The next thing I expect is some sort of profiteering off this.
One could almost forget the illegality, the profiteering, the recklessness, and the endless casualties.
To be profiteering by capitalizing on visits with a young woman in prison seems inappropriate for a member of parliament.
Art collectors were spivvy and profiteering even during the Renaissance.
Historical Examples
These decreases have come out of the elimination of speculation and profiteering.
Herbert HooverVernon Kellogg
Such changes do not come under the category of profiteering.
Herbert HooverVernon Kellogg
There are three kinds of speculation and profiteering in the food trades.
Herbert HooverVernon Kellogg
I should hope to tell you; he is a butcher who has been arrested three times for profiteering.
Jokes For All OccasionsAnonymous
This business of profiteering by the natives is no new phase of life in the Congo.
An African AdventureIsaac F. Marcosson
profiteer
- a person who makes excessive profits, esp by charging exorbitant prices for goods in short supply
Show More
- (intr) to make excessive profits
Show More
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
v.
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]
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper