paymaster

Meanings

1. 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.

2. 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.

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.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images