2 meanings
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1 —as in:
a mercenary soldier
Definition
a person hired to fight for a country other than their own- He enlisted as a mercenary.
mercenary = a person hired to fight for a country other than their own
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- For centuries, mercenaries were Switzerland's chief export good.
- The armies of the French have thus become mixed, partly mercenary and partly national,Nicolo Machiavelli -- The Prince
- Maybe passersby would think he was a member of the French Foreign Legion or some heroic mercenary.John Green -- The Fault in Our Stars
- He even considered working as a mercenary bombardier in an attempted coup in a small Caribbean country, and was still thinking it over when the coup was called off.Laura Hillenbrand -- Unbroken
- On either side of him stood two armed security guys, some of the mortal mercenaries I'd seen in D.C.Rick Riordan -- The Titan's Curse
- He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to...Thomas Jefferson et al. -- The Declaration of Independence
- Mostly I saw monsters, but there were some human mercenaries in combat fatigues and demigods in armor, too.Rick Riordan -- The Last Olympian
- Above all, he was amazed to hear me talk of a mercenary standing army, in the midst of peace, and among a free people.Swift, Jonathan -- Gulliver's Travels
- "For example, why didn't the airplane company that makes money, the mercenaries, why didn't they pay for his flight?Tracy Kidder -- Mountains Beyond Mountains
mercenary = foreigners hired to fight
mercenary = someone hired to fight
mercenary = a person hired to fight for a country other than their own
mercenaries = people hired to fight for a country other than their own
mercenaries = people hired to fight for a country other than their own
mercenaries = people hired to fight for a country other than their own
2 —as in:
a mercenary attitude
Definition
marked by materialism or a profit orientation- She has mercenary motives.
mercenary = marked by materialism or a profit orientation
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- This body of soldiery—which still sustains a corporate existence, and marches down from past ages with an ancient and honourable fame—was composed of no mercenary materials.Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter
- I figure to myself that the task of attending on your sickbed has devolved on some mercenary old nurse, who could never guess your wishes nor minister to them with the care and affection of your poor cousin.Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein
- She is a cold-hearted, vain woman, who has married entirely from convenience, and though evidently unhappy in her marriage, places her disappointment not to faults of judgment, or temper, or disproportion of age, but to her being, after all, less affluent than many of her acquaintance, especially than her sister, Lady Stornaway, and is the determined supporter of everything mercenary and ambitious,Jane Austen -- Mansfield Park
- But I do not approve of mercenary marriages.Oscar Wilde -- The Importance of Being Earnest
- My mind was never yet more mercenary.William Shakespeare -- The Merchant of Venice
- She is a cold-hearted, vain woman, who has married entirely from convenience, and though evidently unhappy in her marriage, places her disappointment not to faults of judgment, or temper, or disproportion of age, but to her being, after all, less affluent than many of her acquaintance, especially than her sister, Lady Stornaway, and is the determined supporter of everything mercenary and ambitious, provided it be only mercenary and ambitious enough.Jane Austen -- Mansfield Park
- Sick of ambitious and mercenary connexions, prizing more and more the sterling good of principle and temper, and chiefly anxious to bind by the strongest securities all that remained to him of domestic felicity, he had pondered with genuine satisfaction on the more than possibility of the two young friends finding their natural consolation in each other for all that had occurred of disappointment to either; and the joyful consent which met Edmund's application, the high sense of having...Jane Austen -- Mansfield Park
- ...her literary dreams were as yet untainted by mercenary considerations.Montgomery, Lucy Maud -- Anne of The Island
- Who can say she has a mercenary motive in marrying him?Collins, Wilkie -- The Haunted Hotel
mercenary = concerned with money
mercenary = working for and concerned with money
mercenary = concerned with wealth
mercenary = made due to considerations of wealth
mercenary = concerned with money
mercenary = concerned with wealth
mercenary = concerned with money
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