mercenary

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   One motivated by gain, especially monetary.

   J. Argyrofylus, a mercenary Greek, who came to teach school in Italy, after the sacking of Constantinople by the Turks, used to maintain that Cicero understood neither Philosophy nor Greek

2. 2
   noun

   A person employed to fight in an armed conflict who is not a member of the state or military group for which they are fighting and whose primary motivation is private gain.

   He exhorts the emperor to revive the courage of his subjects by the example of manly virtue; to banish luxury from the court and from the camp; to substitute in the place of the Barbarian mercenaries, an army of men interested in the defence of their laws and of their property

3. 3
   adj

   Motivated by personal gain.

   Success is never so interesting as struggle—not even to the successful, not even to the most mercenary forms of ambition.

4. 4
   adj

   profit oriented

5. 5
   adj

   marked by materialism

6. 6
   noun

   a person hired to fight for another country than their own

7. 7
   adj

   serving for wages in a foreign army

8. 8
   noun

   One hired to engage in a figurative battle, as a corporate takeover, a lawsuit, or a political campaign.

Etymology

From Middle English mercenarye (“someone paid to work, hireling”), from Latin mercēnārius (“hired for money”), from mercēs (“reward, wages, price”).