as in greedy
having or marked by an eager and often selfish desire especially for material possessions
they were a mercenary couple, who defined themselves not by what they were but by what they owned
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Recent Examples of mercenary
Vladimir Putin has relied on mercenary and convict soldiers, combined with lavish bonuses for poor Russians who volunteer to try their luck against killer Ukrainian robots on the steppe.
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Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 5 Mar. 2025
Neither Evil Steve Jobs nor his mercenary lackey are given much of a motor and oppressive presence.
—Courtney Howard, Variety, 7 Mar. 2025
Since invading Ukraine, Putin has regularly invoked old arguments about Russia’s imperial role in the world, yet his references amount to a mercenary patchwork.
—James Verini, The New Yorker, 1 Mar. 2025
This mercenary approach diminishes U.S. influence, undermines international norms, and sacrifices strategic interests for short-term gains.
—Ross Rosenfeld, Newsweek, 26 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mercenary
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mercenary
Adjective
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Bulls make money, bears make money, pigs get slaughtered Cramer said the market action punished investors who’ve stayed negative, as well as short sellers and hedge funds that got greedy in the past few days.—
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There are also a number of Native American legends in which buzzards are portrayed as greedy and deceptive compared with other large birds.—
Adjective
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In addition, stubbornly high interest rates are prompting institutional investors to offload their holdings in these prime spaces, while luxury companies are eager to take advantage of once-in-a-generation opportunities, and lock in properties for the long term.—
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And Trump has been eager to expand the tech industry’s US footprint and cement America as a leader in artificial intelligence.—
Adjective
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This nation state, my home, is built on a quagmire of lies sold to the young as truths; sold to the insecure as truths; sold by the avaricious, the power-hungry, the conceited, the overwhelmingly white and male.—
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Pearce plays Van Buren as hungry and avaricious even in his kinder moments, a man of immense wealth whose primary desire is to own more and more.—
Adjective
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Like other acquisitive companies, the integration of technology was sub-optimal.—
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Infinite Reality, which is building a headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was founded in 2019 and has been acquisitive in recent months, buying companies such as the Drone Racing League, Landvault and virtual reality retail brand Obsess.—
Cite this Entry
“Mercenary.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mercenary. Accessed 15 Apr. 2025.
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