captain of industry

English

Noun

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

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

Translations

Translations

• Finnish: teollisuuspohatta
• French: capitaine d’industrie (fr) m
• Polish: wódz branży m

See also

• industrialist

 

References

• “captain of industry”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.