as in employe
one who works for another for wages or a salary
demanded to speak to the store's owner and not one of his hirelings
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Recent Examples of hireling
To pretend otherwise in the year 2024 is all-but to out oneself as a hireling.
—
Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review, 12 Feb. 2024
For all the bombast about Trump as a potential Putin hireling, so assiduously hyped by the media and congressional Democrats, Mueller’s actual charges mainly involved false statements made to FBI investigators, often about comparatively trivial matters.
—Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 15 Feb. 2022
No refuge could save the hireling and slave.
—Vanessa Etienne, PEOPLE.com, 30 June 2021
Neither should some assistant DA hireling be allowed to forgo appropriate punishment under state law.
—Star Tribune, 8 Dec. 2020
Like Sade, Epstein had hirelings to procure his victims.
—Mitchell Abidor, The New York Review of Books, 12 Feb. 2020
Not since Carson Palmer has one of Mike Brown’s hirelings had the emperor in such a headlock.
—Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 2 Jan. 2018
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.
—Trudy Rubin, Philly.com, 18 Aug. 2017
No refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.
—Solomon Jones, Philly.com, 18 July 2017
Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review, 12 Feb. 2024
For all the bombast about Trump as a potential Putin hireling, so assiduously hyped by the media and congressional Democrats, Mueller’s actual charges mainly involved false statements made to FBI investigators, often about comparatively trivial matters.
—Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 15 Feb. 2022
No refuge could save the hireling and slave.
—Vanessa Etienne, PEOPLE.com, 30 June 2021
Neither should some assistant DA hireling be allowed to forgo appropriate punishment under state law.
—Star Tribune, 8 Dec. 2020
Like Sade, Epstein had hirelings to procure his victims.
—Mitchell Abidor, The New York Review of Books, 12 Feb. 2020
Not since Carson Palmer has one of Mike Brown’s hirelings had the emperor in such a headlock.
—Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 2 Jan. 2018
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.
—Trudy Rubin, Philly.com, 18 Aug. 2017
No refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.
—Solomon Jones, Philly.com, 18 July 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hireling
Noun
-
The median of the total annual compensation of all Meta employees other than Zuckerberg was $417,400 last year.—
Amanda Gerut,
Fortune,
27 June 2025
-
According to Microsoft Outlook's productivity report, employees average 6.6 hours of overtime per week.—
Jodie Cook,
Forbes.com,
26 June 2025
Noun
-
Unifor had fired back that DHL is not one of the top four express package delivery companies in Canada, and that DHL workers represent fewer than 0.7 percent of all local delivery workers and less than 15 percent of all courier workers in the country.—
Glenn Taylor,
Sourcing Journal,
27 June 2025
-
Abrego Garcia worked as a construction worker in Maryland before his deportation in March, living with his wife and three children.—
Antonio Pequeño IV,
Forbes.com,
27 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Hireling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hireling. Accessed 7 Jul. 2025.
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