Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One who works solely for compensation, especially a person willing to perform for a fee tasks considered menial or offensive.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who is hired or serves for wages: now used only in reprobation or contempt, as in def. 2.
- noun A mercenary; one who acts only with a view to reward or material benefit.
- Serving for wages; employed for money or other compensation; venal; mercenary.
- Synonyms Mercenary, etc. See
venal .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who is hired, or who serves for wages; esp., one whose motive and interest in serving another are wholly gainful; a mercenary.
- adjective Serving for hire or wages; venal; mercenary.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun an
employee who ishired , often to performunpleasant tasks with littleindependence - noun someone who does a job purely for money, rather than out of interest in the work itself
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a person who works only for money
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But those are hirelings that love the wages more than the work, and set their hearts upon that, as the hireling is said to do, Deut. xxiv.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume V (Matthew to John) 1721
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Armenian (Timothy); Joseph (Epaphroditus); Zachary, who was rejected by many and called a hireling; Baanes; Sergius (Tychicus).
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 11: New Mexico-Philip 1840-1916 1913
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The time fixed for the execution of this sentence: Within three years, as the years of a hireling, that is, at the three years 'end exactly, for a servant that is hired for a certain term keeps account to a day.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi) 1721
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They rode out of the Guild hold in single file with Martis riding in the lead, since protocol demanded that the "hireling" ride behind the "mistress" while they were inside the town wall.
Fiddler Fair Lackey, Mercedes 1998
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Some Unitarian Universalists view the relationship of minister to congregation as a business relationship in which the minister is the employee of the congregation; I have even heard the word "hireling" used to describe a minister.
Philocrites: Authority in the Spirit: Developing a doctrine of the liberal church. 1997
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"What is meant by a 'hireling'?" was asked of a class in a day-school.
Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories A Book for Bairns and Big Folk Robert Ford
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Although by another saying of the Lord, it is rendered certain that hired, and even in a sinister sense "hireling," shepherds were known at the time in the country, the presumption that the flock which this shepherd tended was his own property is favoured both by the specific phraseology employed in the narrative, and the special circumstances of this particular case.
The Parables of Our Lord William Arnot
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After his death his son Zachary (the "hireling") and his son-in-law,
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 11: New Mexico-Philip 1840-1916 1913
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"hireling," except to utter a command or a rebuke.
Fairy Fingers A Novel Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie 1844
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Villain: Buttons Zortell (hireling), Nick Clipton (fake name of the man behind the sabotage, obvious early in the story that it is one of the three mine owners)
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