Definition

1. Noun:

   • A person who makes excessive or unfair profits: A profiteer is someone who seeks to gain an unreasonably large financial advantage, especially by taking advantage of unusual circumstances such as scarcity, high demand, or emergencies.

2. Verb:

   • To make an excessive or unfair profit: To profiteer means to engage in the activity of making unreasonably high profits, typically by exploiting a situation where goods or services are in short supply.

Usage

• The word is used to describe and criticize unethical economic behavior. As a noun, it labels a person. As a verb, it describes their action.
• It carries a strong negative connotation of greed and exploitation.

Examples

• Noun:
  • During the war, profiteers sold essential medicines at ten times the normal price.
  • The public condemned the landlords as profiteers during the housing crisis.
• Verb:
  • Some companies were accused of profiteering from the disaster by inflating the price of bottled water.
  • It is illegal to profiteer during a state of emergency.

Advanced Usage

• "War profiteer": A specific term for one who makes excessive profits from the production or sale of materials used in war.
  • The senate committee investigated allegations of war profiteering by defense contractors.
• The -ing form (profiteering) is commonly used as a noun to describe the overall practice or activity.
  • The government introduced price controls to prevent profiteering.

Variants and Related Words

• Profiteering (n): The act or practice of being a profiteer; making excessive profits.
  • Laws against profiteering are often enacted during crises.

Synonyms

• Exploiter: One who uses a situation unfairly for their own advantage.
• Gouger (especially in "price-gouger"): One who charges excessively high prices.

Antonyms

• Philanthropist: A person who seeks to promote the welfare of others, especially by donating money to good causes.
• Altruist: A person who is selflessly concerned for the well-being of others.

Related Phrases

• Price gouging: The practice of raising prices to an unfair or exploitative level during an emergency.
  • Profiteering is often synonymous with price gouging.

Noun

1. someone who makes excessive profit (especially on goods in short supply)

Verb

1. make an unreasonable profit, as on the sale of difficult to obtain goods