captain of industry

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Noun

[edit]

captain of industry (plural captains of industry)

  1. A prominent business person who owns, or is the highest-ranking executive of, one or more major firms, especially one who has considerable wealth and influence.
    Synonyms: magnate, tycoon, merchant prince, taipan (usually historic), robber baron (pejorative, usually historic)
    Hypernyms: boss, businessman
    • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. X”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):
      Plugson, who has indomitably spun Cotton merely to gain thousands of pounds . . . was a Captain of Industry, born member of the Ultimate genuine Aristocracy of this Universe, could he have known it!
    • 1910, Jack London, “Goliah,”, in Revolution and Other Essays:
      Walter Bassett was the greatest captain of industry west of the Rockies, and was one of the small group that controlled the nation in everything but name.
    • 2002 June 3, James Graff, “The Power Behind the Throne”, in Time:
      It was he who maneuvered a captain of industry, steelmaker Francis Mer, rather than a government mandarin into the finance minister's job.

Usage notes

[edit]

Now chiefly with reference or allusion to the robber barons of US industry prior to the development of antitrust legislation.

Translations

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]