Mercenary
['mɜːsɪn(ə)rɪ] or ['mɝsənɛri]
Definition
(noun.) a person hired to fight for another country than their own.
(adj.) serving for wages in a foreign army; 'mercenary killers' .
Editor: Thea--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Acting for reward; serving for pay; paid; hired; hireling; venal; as, mercenary soldiers.
(a.) Hence: Moved by considerations of pay or profit; greedy of gain; sordid; selfish.
(n.) One who is hired; a hireling; especially, a soldier hired into foreign service.
Checker: Thelma
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Venal, hired, hireling.[2]. Sordid, avaricious, covetous, penurious, parsimonious, stingy, miserly, niggardly, mean, selfish, close, close-fisted.
n. Hireling.
Checker: Mimi
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Sordid, venal, selfish, avaricious, griping
ANT:Liberal, generous, disinterested, profuse, prodigal
Edited by Annabel
Definition
adj. hired for money: actuated by the hope of reward: greedy of gain: sold or done for money.—n. one who is hired: a soldier hired into foreign service.—adv. Mer′cenarily.
Edited by Laurence
Examples
- The gold-headed cane is farcical considered as an acknowledgment to me; but happily I am above mercenary considerations. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Perhaps if it was, your little mercenary wretch of a daughter wouldn't make so free with it! Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Mercenary creatures ask, 'What is the use of a man's going to the North Pole? Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Above all, he was amazed to hear me talk of a mercenary standing army, in the midst of peace, and among a free people. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- It is an advantage to get about in such a case without taking a mercenary into your confidence. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- I should be sorry to think our friend mercenary. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- Of which,' pursued the cherub, enjoining patience with his hand, 'a certain mercenary young person distantly related to myself, could not approve? Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- The mercenary young person distantly related to myself, did not trust to me in vain! Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- So insolent, so trivial, so capricious, so mercenary, so careless, so hard to touch, so hard to turn! Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- I am the most mercenary little wretch that ever lived in the world. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- There is nothing mercenary in that with him. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Well then, on that mercenary ground, will you agree to let me hector a little? Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- He is one of the most mercenary, selfish creatures I ever met with. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- I may be mercenary, but I hate poverty, and don't mean to bear it a minute longer than I can help. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- I AM so mercenary! Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- In a well-ordered State there are only a few such, and these in time of war go out and become the mercenaries of a tyrant. Plato. The Republic.
- And he advocated a national army only because he saw the Italian method of carrying on war by hiring bands of foreign mercenaries was a hopeless one. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- There was a battle in the delta, in which Greek mercenaries fought on both sides. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- His citizens have no silver or gold of their own, but are ready enough to pay them to their mercenaries. Plato. The Republic.
Checked by Ernest