customer
/ˈkʌstəmə
/noun
1A person who buys goods or services from a shop or business: Mr Harrison was a regular customer at the Golden Lion...
- There are some welcome concessions over pay for our customer service colleagues.
- This service allows customers to book flights and hotel rooms in the same purchase.
- Employers can access funding to improve the customer service skills of their workers.
Synonyms
shopper, consumer, buyer, purchaser;
patron, client;
regular, frequenter, habitué;
(customers) clientele, patronage, business, trade
British informal punter
Law vendee
rare emptor
2 [with adjective] A person of a specified kind with whom one has to deal: he’s a tough customer...
- Hasseck said one way of deciding how to deal with awkward customers was to work out what kind they were.
- The overseas customer to whom the goods are exported may or may not be a genuine purchaser of them.
- The boy's clearly a slippery customer by this point, but the worst was yet to come.
Synonyms
person, individual, creature, fellow, man, woman
informal sort, type, fella, cookie, bunny, critter
British informal bloke, chap, bod, geezer, gent
North American informal guy, gal, dame, dude, hombre
informal, dated dog
British vulgar slang sod, bugger
archaic wight