sleeping partner

English

Alternative forms

• sleeping-partner

Noun

sleeping partner (plural sleeping partners)

1. (UK) A business partner who doesn't play an active role in running the day-to-day operations of a business, who instead, finances the business in the form of capital investment.

   Synonym: silent partner

   • 1957 [1944], Karl Polanyi, chapter 9, in The Great Transformation, Beacon Press: Boston, page 108:

     Somewhat later, the Frenchman Charles Fourier was ridiculed for expecting day by day the sleeping-partner to turn up who would invest in his Phalanstère plan, which was based on ideas very similar to those sponsored by one of the greatest contemporary experts on finance.

Translations

a business partner who is not involved in the day-to-day business, but puts up capital

• German: stiller Gesellschafter m, stiller Teilhaber m
• Swedish: passiv delägare