mercenary
Americanadjective
-
working or acting merely for money or other reward; venal.
- Synonyms:
- covetous , avaricious , acquisitive , grasping
- Antonyms:
- unselfish , idealistic , altruistic
-
hired to serve in a foreign army, guerrilla organization, etc.
noun
PLURAL
mercenaries-
a professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army.
-
any hireling.
adjective
-
influenced by greed or desire for gain
-
of or relating to a mercenary or mercenaries
noun
-
a man hired to fight for a foreign army, etc
-
rare any person who works solely for pay
Other Word Forms
- mercenarily adverb
- mercenariness noun
- nonmercenary adjective
- unmercenarily adverb
- unmercenariness noun
- unmercenary adjective
Etymology
Origin of mercenary
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English mercenarie, from Latin mercēnnārius “working for pay, hired worker, mercenary,” perhaps from earlier mercēd(i)nārius (unrecorded), from mercēdin- (unrecorded), variant stem of mercēs “payment, wage” (akin to merx “goods”; merchant ) + -ārius -ary
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.
Just a couple of years ago, countries such as Mali and the Central African Republic were hiring mercenaries from the Kremlin-aligned Wagner Group to protect their leaders and fight their enemies.
A daughter of South Africa's ex-president Jacob Zuma has resigned from parliament after claims she was involved in recruiting men to join Russian mercenaries in the Ukraine war, her party said Friday.
From Barron's
Earlier this month, the South African government confirmed it had received distress calls from 17 of its citizens trapped in Donbas after being lured to join mercenary forces on the promise of lucrative contracts.
From BBC
The junta pivoted towards Russia, enlisting the help of the Wagner mercenary group, which was at the time linked to the Kremlin.
From BBC
The army at the time rejected "foreign interference" - which observers say is a reference to the UAE - and any attempts that equated it with a "racist terrorist militia that relies on foreign mercenaries".
From BBC
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.
