captain of industry
English edit
Noun edit
captain of industry (plural captains of industry)
- 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.
- 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.
Synonyms edit
- magnate, tycoon; merchant prince, taipan (usually historic); robber baron (pejorative, usually historic)
Hypernyms edit
Translations edit
Translations
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References edit
- “captain of industry”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.