mercenaryn.adj.

Brit.

/ˈməːs(ᵻ)n(ə)ri/,

/ˈməːsn̩(ə)ri/, U.S.

/ˈmərsənˌɛri/,

/ˈmərsnˌɛri/

Forms: Middle English mercynary, Middle English mersenarie, Middle English mersenarye, Middle English–1500s mercenarye, Middle English–1600s mercenarie, 1500s mercennary, 1500s mercionary, 1500s–1600s mercinarie, 1500s–1600s mercinary, 1500s– mercenary, 1600s mersenary; Scottish pre-1700 mercenarye, pre-1700 1700s– mercenary.

Origin: A borrowing from Latin. Etymon: Latin mercēnārius.

Etymology: < classical Latin mercēnārius, mercēnnārius, probably < an unattested form *mercēdinārius < an unattested noun *mercēdin- , *mercēdō (compare classical Latin mercēdonius , probably ‘paymaster’, only recorded in an 8th–cent. epitome), cognate and synonymous with mercēd- , mercēs reward, wages (see mercy n.) + -ārius -ary suffix¹. Compare Old French, Middle French, French mercenaire (c1225 in Old French as adjective, 1694 as noun; late 14th and 15th centuries as plural noun respectively in senses A. 1 and A. 2); compare also Old French mercenier, mercennier (13th cent. as noun), Anglo-Norman mercener. Compare Spanish mercenario (early 13th cent.), Italian mercenario (a1380 as noun; late 13th cent. in form mercenaio, a1565 as adjective; 1363 in form marciennari), Portuguese mercenário (16th cent.).The main sense divisions in English, including pejorative application of the adjective, are found already in classical Latin. The earliest use in English refers to the ‘hireling’ (Vulgate mercenarius) of John 10:12.

A. n.

1. A person who works merely for money or other material reward; a hireling. In later use (probably influenced also by sense A. 2): a person whose actions are motivated primarily by personal gain, often at the expense of ethics.

ΘΚΠ

society > trade and finance > management of money > income, revenue, or profit > [noun] > one who labours solely for profit

mercenaryc1387

society > authority > subjection > service > servant > types of servant > [noun] > hireling

hiremanc975

hirelingc1000

leȝhemannc1175

allowes1348

merchantc1384

mercenaryc1387

hiring manc1425

pensioner1472

wageling?1545

pensionary1548

hired woman1639

help1645

engagee1808

society > morality > moral evil > evil nature or character > lack of magnanimity or noble-mindedness > [noun] > mercenariness > person

mercenaryc1387

hireling1574

prostitute1680

spoilsman1850

c1387–95 G. Chaucer Canterbury Tales Prol. 514 He [sc. the parson] was a shepherde and noght a mercenarye [v.r. mersenarye].

c1475 (a1449) J. Lydgate Minor Poems (1911) i. 167 Pastor callid, nat a mercenarye.

?1548 J. Bale Comedy Thre Lawes Nature iii. sig. C8^v We are soch mercenaryes... As from the flock all carryes.

1643 Sir T. Browne Religio Medici (authorized ed.) i. §52 Mercenaries that crouch unto him in feare of Hell..are indeed but slaves of the Almighty.

1805 J. H. Tooke Επεα Πτεροεντα (ed. 2) II. i. 3 Punish the wickedness of those mercenaries who utter such atrocities.

1806 J. Lingard Antiq. Anglo-Saxon Church II. xi. 258 The monastic institute was condemned, as calculated only for mercenaries and slaves.

1982 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 11 July ii. 15 Mr Lucas's original intention was to ‘do the first one [sc. Star Wars film] and then be a real mercenary and turn it over to someone like Fox and take a big percentage of the gross’.

1998 Mirror (Nexis) 18 Dec. 49 When Everton came in for me two seasons ago, West Ham were in relegation trouble. If I'd been a real mercenary, I'd have cleared off and left them to it.

a. A person who receives payment for his or her services. Chiefly and now only: spec. a soldier paid to serve in a foreign army or other military organization.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > soldier by type of service > [noun] > mercenary

wagerc1420

knight wager1513

mercenary1523

lance-knight1530

suddart1542

hireling1547

adventurer1548

venturer1572

lansquenet1577

warmonger1590

mercenarian1598

passe-volant1617

provantman1659

soldier of fortune1661

privateer1676

routier1683

bravo1761

stipendiary1768

free companion1804

freelance1819

free-rider1821

freelancer1854

merchant of death1934

merc1967

1523 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles I. ccv. 242 The Almaygnes, and mercenaryes of strange countreis.

1583 P. Stubbes Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. K7 The reading ministers after they be hired of the parishes (for they are mercenaries).

1638 G. Sandys Paraphr. Iob vii. 10 in Paraphr. Divine Poems He a poore mercenary serves for bread.

1687 J. Dryden Hind & Panther ii. 49 Like mercenary's, hir'd for home defence, They will not serve against their native Prince.

1776 T. Jefferson Wks. (1859) I. 23 He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries.

1840 R. Browning Sordello iv. 51 Lean silent gangs of mercenaries ceased Working to watch the strangers.

1850 G. Grote Hist. Greece VII. ii. lx. 438 Greeks continental and insular..volunteers and mercenaries..were all here to be found.

1913 G. Edmundson Church Rome First Cent. vi. 169 The storming and burning of the Capitol by the foreign mercenaries of Vitellius.

1974 F. Forsyth Dogs of War (1975) I. iv. 86 So for the last six years he had lived as a mercenary, often an outlaw, at best regarded as a soldier for hire, at worst a paid killer.

b. In extended use, with modifying word.

ΚΠ

1861 J. Pycroft Ways & Words 285 Literary mercenaries, ready to serve under friend or foe.

1987 E. Prager Clea & Zeus Divorce (1988) v. 26 They wore their camouflage fatigues..and heavy boots and berets, like the show biz mercenaries they were.

B. adj.

a. Of a person, organization, etc.: working or acting merely for money or other material reward; motivated by self-interest; materialistic.

ΘΚΠ

society > trade and finance > management of money > income, revenue, or profit > getting or making money > [adjective] > bent on or adapted to making gain > influenced by desire for wealth

mercenary1532

Mammonitish1615

merchanticala1618

mammonish1837

money-grubbing1847

mammonistic1882

get-rich-quick1891

1532 T. More Confut. Tyndale in Wks. 507/2 A mercennary preacher and an hired, which seketh his own temporal aduauntage & commoditie.

1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice iv. i. 415 And I deliuering you, am satisfied, and therein doe account my selfe well payd, my minde was neuer yet more mercinarie .

1616 Sir R. Dudley in S. R. Gardiner Fortescue Papers (1871) 17 And that, whether you move this suite or noe, for I am not mercenarie.

1762 O. Goldsmith Citizen of World I. 45 Such wretches are kept in pay by some mercenary bookseller.

1843 Ainsworth's Mag. 4 308 Upon the ‘balance’,..women are quite as mercenary as men.

1865 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend II. iii. iv. 31 Haven't I told you what a mercenary little wretch I am?

1955 A. West Heritage ii. 38 I should be put in a school where I would neither be exposed, nor tempted to expose myself, to the activities of mercenary and unscrupulous journalists.

1997 Dallas Morning News (Nexis) 20 Dec. 1 a Mr. Greene said he's heard skeptical comments that JPI only gave the city the property because it benefited from the deal. ‘They're not a mercenary organization.’

b. Of conduct, a course of action, etc., or its motivation: characterized by self-interest or the pursuit of personal gain; prompted by the desire for money or other material reward; undertaken only for personal gain.

ΘΚΠ

society > morality > moral evil > evil nature or character > lack of magnanimity or noble-mindedness > [adjective] > motivated by material reward

mercenary1532

hireling1587

truculent1825

kiss-cow1840

society > trade and finance > management of money > income, revenue, or profit > getting or making money > [adjective] > bent on or adapted to making gain > influenced by desire for wealth > of conduct or action

mercenary1532

mercantile1756

1532 T. More Confut. Tyndale in Wks. 362/2 They holde that it is not lawfull to loue..God..for obteining of reward, calling this maner of loue..seruile bonde and mercennary.

1619 H. Hutton Follie's Anat. sig. A5^v Value my verse according to her worth: No mercenary hope hath brought her forth.

1690 W. Temple Ess. Anc. & Mod. Learning 68 in Miscellanea: 2nd Pt. Learning has been so little advanced since it grew to be mercenary.

1709 Ld. Shaftesbury Sensus Communis: Ess. Freedom of Wit 55 They have made Virtue so mercenary a Thing, and have talk'd so much of its Rewards.

1782 W. Cowper Hope in Poems 158 His soul abhors a mercenary thought, And him as deeply who abhors it not.

1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. III. 128 The disgusting spectacle of mercenary marriages.

1861 C. Dickens Let. 6 Nov. (1997) IX. 496 They are all old servants,..and..are under the strongest injunction to avoid any approach to mercenary dealing.

1890 H. James Tragic Muse I. xiii. 273 I might improve my fortune by some other means than by making a mercenary marriage.

1913 T. Hardy Changed Man 275 No man when he first becomes interested in a woman has any definite scheme of engagement to marry her in his mind, unless he is meaning a vulgar mercenary marriage.

1971 I. Murdoch Accidental Man 150 We are glad to know that you did not learn of the young lady's fortune before you courted her, though we are in any case aware that you are above any mercenary motive.

1990 G. Robertson Media Law 17 The law of England is indeed,..a law of liberty; but the freedoms it recognises do not include a licence for the mercenary betrayal of business confidences.

a. Hired, serving for wages. Now: spec. designating a soldier paid to serve in a foreign army or other military organization; (of an army) composed of such soldiers.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to conditions > [adjective] > hired or relating to hireling

mercenary1569

hireling1587

hackneyed1743

society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > soldier by type of service > [adjective] > mercenary

wagedc1440

stipendiaryc1545

mercenary1569

wageable1614

provant1637

stipendiarian1796

mercenarian1886

1569 T. Stocker tr. Diodorus Siculus Hist. Successors Alexander 105 Aboute two thousand Mercenarie Grekes, and so many Thracians.

1589 R. Greene Ciceronis Amor 52 A simple sheepeharde who as a Mercinarie man kept sheepe for Vatinius.

1590 J. Smythe Certain Disc. Weapons 49 b They..began..to go ouer to serue as mercenarie soldiers in the Low Countries.

1611 T. Coryate Crudities sig. O7 Of these Gondolaes..sixe thousand are priuate,..and foure thousand for mercenary men, which get their liuing by the trade of rowing.

1640 I. Walton Life & Death Donne in J. Donne LXXX Serm. A6 He continued that employment.., being daily usefull (and not mercenary) to his friends.

1795 W. Seward Anecd. (1796) III. 382 Lord Chatham was obliged to call in to its aid the mercenary troops of other Nations: these..he subsidised with a liberal..hand.

1830 Lady Morgan France 1829–30 I. 502 For what purpose is all this apparatus of tyranny..the jail, the gibbet, the mercenary army, [etc.]—to obtain the power of doing evil.

1871 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest IV. xviii. 233 William at this time dismissed the mercenary part of his army.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 31/2 Abd-ar-rahman subdued the nobles by means of a mercenary army, which included Christians.

1974 J. Philips Power Killers (1975) i. i. 9 There is a well organized..terror group that involves mercenary killers all over the world.

†b. Salaried, stipendiary; profit-making. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > [adjective] > performed for sake of gain

mercenary1656

society > occupation and work > work > [adjective] > salaried

mercenary1726

salaried1836

1656 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. II. vi. 27 He shut up his poor shop, and gave over his mercenary profession.

a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1664 (1955) III. 369 I saw acted the Indian Queene a Tragedie..so beautified with rich Scenes as the like had never ben seene..on a mercenarie Theater.

1726 J. Ayliffe Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 319 Such Things..the Judge may despatch by his mercenary Office.

1782 T. Pennant Journey Chester to London 96 These livings at that time were good rectories; now poor vicarages, or mercenary curacies, annexed to the bishoprick.

3. Of or belonging to a mercenary.

ΚΠ

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) iv. vii. 74 Many of our Princes..Lye drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood.

1735 J. Thomson Greece: 2nd Pt. Liberty 38 To spill Their Country's bravest blood, and on themselves To turn their matchless mercenary Arms.

1758 J. Home Agis ii. i. 22 Tell..Rhesus, if he loves bright arms..No more to wield a mercenary sword, But plant himself with thee in Sparta's soil.

1922 A. E. Housman in Oxf. Bk. 20th Cent. Eng. Verse (1973) 48 These, in the day when heaven was falling, The hour when earth's foundations fled, Followed their mercenary calling And took their wages and are dead.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

单词	mercenary
释义	mercenaryn.adj. Brit. /ˈməːs(ᵻ)n(ə)ri/, /ˈməːsn̩(ə)ri/, U.S. /ˈmərsənˌɛri/, /ˈmərsnˌɛri/ Forms: Middle English mercynary, Middle English mersenarie, Middle English mersenarye, Middle English–1500s mercenarye, Middle English–1600s mercenarie, 1500s mercennary, 1500s mercionary, 1500s–1600s mercinarie, 1500s–1600s mercinary, 1500s– mercenary, 1600s mersenary; Scottish pre-1700 mercenarye, pre-1700 1700s– mercenary. Origin: A borrowing from Latin. Etymon: Latin mercēnārius. Etymology: < classical Latin mercēnārius, mercēnnārius, probably < an unattested form mercēdinārius < an unattested noun mercēdin- , mercēdō (compare classical Latin mercēdonius* , probably ‘paymaster’, only recorded in an 8th–cent. epitome), cognate and synonymous with mercēd- , mercēs reward, wages (see mercy n.) + -ārius -ary suffix¹. Compare Old French, Middle French, French mercenaire (c1225 in Old French as adjective, 1694 as noun; late 14th and 15th centuries as plural noun respectively in senses A. 1 and A. 2); compare also Old French mercenier, mercennier (13th cent. as noun), Anglo-Norman mercener. Compare Spanish mercenario (early 13th cent.), Italian mercenario (a1380 as noun; late 13th cent. in form mercenaio, a1565 as adjective; 1363 in form marciennari), Portuguese mercenário (16th cent.).The main sense divisions in English, including pejorative application of the adjective, are found already in classical Latin. The earliest use in English refers to the ‘hireling’ (Vulgate mercenarius) of John 10:12. A. n. 1. A person who works merely for money or other material reward; a hireling. In later use (probably influenced also by sense A. 2): a person whose actions are motivated primarily by personal gain, often at the expense of ethics. ΘΚΠ society > trade and finance > management of money > income, revenue, or profit > [noun] > one who labours solely for profit mercenaryc1387 society > authority > subjection > service > servant > types of servant > [noun] > hireling hiremanc975 hirelingc1000 leȝhemannc1175 allowes1348 merchantc1384 mercenaryc1387 hiring manc1425 pensioner1472 wageling?1545 pensionary1548 hired woman1639 help1645 engagee1808 society > morality > moral evil > evil nature or character > lack of magnanimity or noble-mindedness > [noun] > mercenariness > person mercenaryc1387 hireling1574 prostitute1680 spoilsman1850 c1387–95 G. Chaucer Canterbury Tales Prol. 514 He [sc. the parson] was a shepherde and noght a mercenarye [v.r. mersenarye]. c1475 (a1449) J. Lydgate Minor Poems (1911) i. 167 Pastor callid, nat a mercenarye. ?1548 J. Bale Comedy Thre Lawes Nature iii. sig. C8^v We are soch mercenaryes... As from the flock all carryes. 1643 Sir T. Browne Religio Medici (authorized ed.) i. §52 Mercenaries that crouch unto him in feare of Hell..are indeed but slaves of the Almighty. View more context for this quotation 1805 J. H. Tooke Επεα Πτεροεντα (ed. 2) II. i. 3 Punish the wickedness of those mercenaries who utter such atrocities. 1806 J. Lingard Antiq. Anglo-Saxon Church II. xi. 258 The monastic institute was condemned, as calculated only for mercenaries and slaves. 1982 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 11 July ii. 15 Mr Lucas's original intention was to ‘do the first one [sc. Star Wars film] and then be a real mercenary and turn it over to someone like Fox and take a big percentage of the gross’. 1998 Mirror (Nexis) 18 Dec. 49 When Everton came in for me two seasons ago, West Ham were in relegation trouble. If I'd been a real mercenary, I'd have cleared off and left them to it. 2. a. A person who receives payment for his or her services. Chiefly and now only: spec. a soldier paid to serve in a foreign army or other military organization. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > soldier by type of service > [noun] > mercenary wagerc1420 knight wager1513 mercenary1523 lance-knight1530 suddart1542 hireling1547 adventurer1548 venturer1572 lansquenet1577 warmonger1590 mercenarian1598 passe-volant1617 provantman1659 soldier of fortune1661 privateer1676 routier1683 bravo1761 stipendiary1768 free companion1804 freelance1819 free-rider1821 freelancer1854 merchant of death1934 merc1967 1523 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles I. ccv. 242 The Almaygnes, and mercenaryes of strange countreis. 1583 P. Stubbes Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. K7 The reading ministers after they be hired of the parishes (for they are mercenaries). 1638 G. Sandys Paraphr. Iob vii. 10 in Paraphr. Divine Poems He a poore mercenary serves for bread. 1687 J. Dryden Hind & Panther ii. 49 Like mercenary's, hir'd for home defence, They will not serve against their native Prince. 1776 T. Jefferson Wks. (1859) I. 23 He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries. 1840 R. Browning Sordello iv. 51 Lean silent gangs of mercenaries ceased Working to watch the strangers. 1850 G. Grote Hist. Greece VII. ii. lx. 438 Greeks continental and insular..volunteers and mercenaries..were all here to be found. 1913 G. Edmundson Church Rome First Cent. vi. 169 The storming and burning of the Capitol by the foreign mercenaries of Vitellius. 1974 F. Forsyth Dogs of War (1975) I. iv. 86 So for the last six years he had lived as a mercenary, often an outlaw, at best regarded as a soldier for hire, at worst a paid killer. b. In extended use, with modifying word. ΚΠ 1861 J. Pycroft Ways & Words 285 Literary mercenaries, ready to serve under friend or foe. 1987 E. Prager Clea & Zeus Divorce (1988) v. 26 They wore their camouflage fatigues..and heavy boots and berets, like the show biz mercenaries they were. B. adj. 1. a. Of a person, organization, etc.: working or acting merely for money or other material reward; motivated by self-interest; materialistic. ΘΚΠ society > trade and finance > management of money > income, revenue, or profit > getting or making money > [adjective] > bent on or adapted to making gain > influenced by desire for wealth mercenary1532 Mammonitish1615 merchanticala1618 mammonish1837 money-grubbing1847 mammonistic1882 get-rich-quick1891 1532 T. More Confut. Tyndale in Wks. 507/2 A mercennary preacher and an hired, which seketh his own temporal aduauntage & commoditie. 1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice iv. i. 415 And I deliuering you, am satisfied, and therein doe account my selfe well payd, my minde was neuer yet more mercinarie . View more context for this quotation 1616 Sir R. Dudley in S. R. Gardiner Fortescue Papers (1871) 17 And that, whether you move this suite or noe, for I am not mercenarie. 1762 O. Goldsmith Citizen of World I. 45 Such wretches are kept in pay by some mercenary bookseller. 1843 Ainsworth's Mag. 4 308 Upon the ‘balance’,..women are quite as mercenary as men. 1865 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend II. iii. iv. 31 Haven't I told you what a mercenary little wretch I am? 1955 A. West Heritage ii. 38 I should be put in a school where I would neither be exposed, nor tempted to expose myself, to the activities of mercenary and unscrupulous journalists. 1997 Dallas Morning News (Nexis) 20 Dec. 1 a Mr. Greene said he's heard skeptical comments that JPI only gave the city the property because it benefited from the deal. ‘They're not a mercenary organization.’ b. Of conduct, a course of action, etc., or its motivation: characterized by self-interest or the pursuit of personal gain; prompted by the desire for money or other material reward; undertaken only for personal gain. ΘΚΠ society > morality > moral evil > evil nature or character > lack of magnanimity or noble-mindedness > [adjective] > motivated by material reward mercenary1532 hireling1587 truculent1825 kiss-cow1840 society > trade and finance > management of money > income, revenue, or profit > getting or making money > [adjective] > bent on or adapted to making gain > influenced by desire for wealth > of conduct or action mercenary1532 mercantile1756 1532 T. More Confut. Tyndale in Wks. 362/2 They holde that it is not lawfull to loue..God..for obteining of reward, calling this maner of loue..seruile bonde and mercennary. 1619 H. Hutton Follie's Anat. sig. A5^v Value my verse according to her worth: No mercenary hope hath brought her forth. 1690 W. Temple Ess. Anc. & Mod. Learning 68 in Miscellanea: 2nd Pt. Learning has been so little advanced since it grew to be mercenary. 1709 Ld. Shaftesbury Sensus Communis: Ess. Freedom of Wit 55 They have made Virtue so mercenary a Thing, and have talk'd so much of its Rewards. 1782 W. Cowper Hope in Poems 158 His soul abhors a mercenary thought, And him as deeply who abhors it not. 1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. III. 128 The disgusting spectacle of mercenary marriages. 1861 C. Dickens Let. 6 Nov. (1997) IX. 496 They are all old servants,..and..are under the strongest injunction to avoid any approach to mercenary dealing. 1890 H. James Tragic Muse I. xiii. 273 I might improve my fortune by some other means than by making a mercenary marriage. 1913 T. Hardy Changed Man 275 No man when he first becomes interested in a woman has any definite scheme of engagement to marry her in his mind, unless he is meaning a vulgar mercenary marriage. 1971 I. Murdoch Accidental Man 150 We are glad to know that you did not learn of the young lady's fortune before you courted her, though we are in any case aware that you are above any mercenary motive. 1990 G. Robertson Media Law 17 The law of England is indeed,..a law of liberty; but the freedoms it recognises do not include a licence for the mercenary betrayal of business confidences. 2. a. Hired, serving for wages. Now: spec. designating a soldier paid to serve in a foreign army or other military organization; (of an army) composed of such soldiers. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to conditions > [adjective] > hired or relating to hireling mercenary1569 hireling1587 hackneyed1743 society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > soldier by type of service > [adjective] > mercenary wagedc1440 stipendiaryc1545 mercenary1569 wageable1614 provant1637 stipendiarian1796 mercenarian1886 1569 T. Stocker tr. Diodorus Siculus Hist. Successors Alexander 105 Aboute two thousand Mercenarie Grekes, and so many Thracians. 1589 R. Greene Ciceronis Amor 52 A simple sheepeharde who as a Mercinarie man kept sheepe for Vatinius. 1590 J. Smythe Certain Disc. Weapons 49 b They..began..to go ouer to serue as mercenarie soldiers in the Low Countries. 1611 T. Coryate Crudities sig. O7 Of these Gondolaes..sixe thousand are priuate,..and foure thousand for mercenary men, which get their liuing by the trade of rowing. 1640 I. Walton Life & Death Donne in J. Donne LXXX Serm. A6 He continued that employment.., being daily usefull (and not mercenary) to his friends. 1795 W. Seward Anecd. (1796) III. 382 Lord Chatham was obliged to call in to its aid the mercenary troops of other Nations: these..he subsidised with a liberal..hand. 1830 Lady Morgan France 1829–30 I. 502 For what purpose is all this apparatus of tyranny..the jail, the gibbet, the mercenary army, [etc.]—to obtain the power of doing evil. 1871 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest IV. xviii. 233 William at this time dismissed the mercenary part of his army. 1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 31/2 Abd-ar-rahman subdued the nobles by means of a mercenary army, which included Christians. 1974 J. Philips Power Killers (1975) i. i. 9 There is a well organized..terror group that involves mercenary killers all over the world. †b. Salaried, stipendiary; profit-making. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > [adjective] > performed for sake of gain mercenary1656 society > occupation and work > work > [adjective] > salaried mercenary1726 salaried1836 1656 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. II. vi. 27 He shut up his poor shop, and gave over his mercenary profession. a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1664 (1955) III. 369 I saw acted the Indian Queene a Tragedie..so beautified with rich Scenes as the like had never ben seene..on a mercenarie Theater. 1726 J. Ayliffe Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 319 Such Things..the Judge may despatch by his mercenary Office. 1782 T. Pennant Journey Chester to London 96 These livings at that time were good rectories; now poor vicarages, or mercenary curacies, annexed to the bishoprick. 3. Of or belonging to a mercenary. ΚΠ a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) iv. vii. 74 Many of our Princes..Lye drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood. View more context for this quotation 1735 J. Thomson Greece: 2nd Pt. Liberty 38 To spill Their Country's bravest blood, and on themselves To turn their matchless mercenary Arms. 1758 J. Home Agis ii. i. 22 Tell..Rhesus, if he loves bright arms..No more to wield a mercenary sword, But plant himself with thee in Sparta's soil. 1922 A. E. Housman in Oxf. Bk. 20th Cent. Eng. Verse (1973) 48 These, in the day when heaven was falling, The hour when earth's foundations fled, Followed their mercenary calling And took their wages and are dead. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.adj.c1387
随便看	open-spaced open-spoken open-steek open-step open-streeted open-tail open-textured open-texturedness open-thrappled open-throated open-tide open-toe open-toed open-top open-topped open-tread open-type open-view open-visaged open-waled open-web open-windowed open-windowedness open-worked open-working