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
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
Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review, 12 Feb. 2024
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hireling
Noun
-
Paying the price for the company’s decisions are the 70 full-time park employees and hundreds of seasonal workers, along with the hundreds of thousands of annual guests who will have one less form of affordable entertainment.—
Shannon Pettypiece,
NBC news,
24 Oct. 2025
-
Intel now counts 88,400 employees—down from 124,100 this time last year.—
Andrew Nusca,
Fortune,
24 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
The White Lotus season 1 centered on a group of guests and workers at the Hawaii location of the titular luxury resort chain.—
Ryan Coleman,
Entertainment Weekly,
28 Oct. 2025
-
Reich said Lauren Spors began to scream and threaten those around her, prompting a county worker to call the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office.—
David Clarey,
jsonline.com,
27 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Hireling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hireling. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
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