as in employee
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
-
But since the state’s cuts to Medicaid payments for certain services, and the launch of the FBI investigation in 2024, ARC has laid off hundreds of employees and shuttered dozens of facilities, leaving some clients homeless.—
Alex Acquisto,
CNN Money,
9 Apr. 2026
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The big story In this photograph taken on September 23, 2025, employees work at a garment factory in Tiruppur, in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu.—
Priyanka Salve,
CNBC,
9 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Chats with friends and co-workers alike can do a lot to improve the flow of your schedule.—
Tarot.com,
Baltimore Sun,
4 Apr. 2026
-
The two started out at the YMCA as community health workers and went back at least a decade.—
Amanda Rosa,
Miami Herald,
4 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Hireling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hireling. Accessed 11 Apr. 2026.
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