Meanings
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1
noun
an official or employee responsible for paying wages, especially to workers or troops
The regiment's paymaster distributed the soldiers' wages each Friday.
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2
noun
a person or organization that supplies funds and may thereby demand loyalty, influence, or services
Investigators tried to identify the armed group's secret paymaster.
Thesaurus
Etymology
A compound of pay + master. The literal office controls the distribution of wages; the often critical figurative sense treats a funder as the master of people or organizations dependent on its money.