rent-seeking
Americannoun
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the act or process of using one’s assets and resources to increase one’s share of existing wealth without creating new wealth.
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(specifically) the act or process of exploiting the political process or manipulating the economic environment to increase one’s revenue or profits.
Rent-seeking by lobbyists succeeded in obtaining favorable tariff treatment for the company’s exports.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of rent-seeking
First recorded in 1970–75; (economic) rent + seeking
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.
It is easy in retrospect to turn Edison into a rent-seeking villain protecting his investment in DC.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
"They're not heavily enforced, but they create ample opportunities for rent-seeking," Naveed Mehmood Ahmad, co-author of the study at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, told me.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2025
“Rather than seeking to compete fairly,” Mr. Feldman told him, “I see what you’re doing as rent-seeking behavior, pure and simple.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 30, 2024
But since the charity stopped using it, he said, the building had become a target for rent-seeking syndicates.
From Reuters ● Sep. 2, 2023
The state and the oligarchs continue to represent a rent-seeking opportunity.
From Russian Roulette: Russia's Economy in Putin's Era by Samuel Vaknin
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
