Definition of hireling
: a person who serves for hire especially for purely mercenary motives
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Examples of hireling in a Sentence
She's one of the political hirelings who run the candidate's campaign.
demanded to speak to the store's owner and not one of his hirelings
Recent Examples of hireling from the Web
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Not since Carson Palmer has one of Mike Brown’s hirelings had the emperor in such a headlock.
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This dangerous idea is being pushed by Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, a U.S. contracting firm whose private security hirelings famously shot up civilians in Baghdad.
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No refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.
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Less a bold grab for fortune or glory and more a frantic race back to the cave’s entrance, Hirelings: The Ascent is an enchanting mash-up of Dungeons & Dragons and Candy Land.
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The excuses from the soulless ghouls—and their hirelings in law enforcement—should not be a surprise, either.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hireling.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
First Known Use of hireling
before 12th century
hireling Synonyms
Antonyms
Near Antonyms
Related Words
assistant, cog, flunky (also flunkey), subordinate, underling, yes-man;
drudge, grub, hack, jobber, laborer, toiler;
nine-to-fiver, wage earner, wage slave, wageworker, workingman, workingwoman, workman, workwoman;
HIRELING Defined for English Language Learners
Definition of hireling for English Language Learners
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: a person who is paid for doing a job that is not respected or that is considered morally wrong
Learn More about hireling
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for hireling
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