padrone
Americannoun
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a master; boss.
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an employer, especially of immigrant laborers, who provides communal housing and eating arrangements, controls the allocation of pay, etc., in a manner that exploits the workers.
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an innkeeper.
noun
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the owner or proprietor of an inn, esp in Italy
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an employer who completely controls his workers, esp a man who exploits Italian immigrants in the US
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of padrone
From Italian, dating back to 1660–70; see origin at patron
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.
See Examples For:
Phil, the Fiddler is a memorial to a successful crusade that Alger led against the padrone system, by which hundreds of little street musicians, brought to Manhattan from Italy, were kept as virtual slaves.
From Time Magazine Archive
His padrone, disgusted, spells out what awaits him: "Go make pizzas."
From Time Magazine Archive
A. In a marriage there is always a padrone, a master, and it is not necessarily the man.
From Time Magazine Archive
Best shots : Miss Daniels in her metal dress; a Mexican padrone respect fully kissing a moneyed young man be cause he takes him to be a safecracker.
From Time Magazine Archive
The padrone of the inn here breaks in with the robust suggestion that these restrictions ought to be removed, and that monks and nuns should have liberty to visit each the establishments of the other.
From From the Oak to the Olive A Plain record of a Pleasant Journey by Howe, Julia Ward
It was being sold to the padrones, who were bringing it to Palma and Barcelona.
From The Dead Command From the Spanish Los Muertos Mandan by Douglas, Frances
The men admitted that the padrones had paid their passage and agreed to furnish them work.
From Aliens or Americans? by Grose, Howard B. (Howard Benjamin)
There is also a Boston Italian Society, organized in 1902, to protect newcomers from sharpers, thieves, and fraudulent persons; also from the frauds of bankers and padrones.
From Aliens or Americans? by Grose, Howard B. (Howard Benjamin)
One of these padrones," Daddy said slowly, "is trying to get families to work in Florida.
From Across the Fruited Plain by Means, Florence Crannell
The steamship companies had to bear the expense of taking them back, but the padrones have not suffered any penalty, and will go on with their unlawful work.
From Aliens or Americans? by Grose, Howard B. (Howard Benjamin)
Then the padroni will have eaten and the rocks will be covered with crabs, and the moon will not be yet risen.
From The Children of the King by Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
A determined warfare was declared against the Italian padroni, who thrive upon the toil of the little unfortunates to whom they pretend to teach music, and whom they utilize as peddlers and chimney-sweepers.
From The Bay State Monthly — Volume 2, No. 2, November, 1884 by Various
"You have a beautiful pair of padroni, you and your brother," observed Nennè, making a hideous face over the boat's side.
From The Children of the King by Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
Since the alien contract-labor law does not apply to immigrants from Hawaii, a padroni system has sprung up for importing Japanese from that island.
From Races and Immigrants in America by Commons, John R. (John Rogers)
When the provveditore was present at solemn functions a bench was placed for him and the "padroni," as well as for the authorities of the Castelli and the colonel of the district.
From The Shores of the Adriatic The Austrian Side, The Küstenlande, Istria, and Dalmatia by Jackson, F. Hamilton (Frederick Hamilton)
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.
