drug baron
1
5.8
- noun
- /drʌg ˈbærən/
- NSFW
:
barón de la droga
- In Iraq, a mixture of foreign jihadists, former Saddamists, and rejectionist insurgents; in Afghanistan, a combination of drug barons, the Taliban, and al Qaeda.
- the most powerful drug baron
You, you raised by Pablo Escobar, if you became a drug Baron, ruthless murdering criminal, I wouldn't excuse it, but it might explain it.
- You, you raised by Pablo Escobar, if you became a drug Baron, ruthless murdering criminal, I wouldn't excuse it, but it might explain it.
Examples
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Thousands of people took to the streets in weekly anti-drug marches, which drove the dealers out of Dublin and forced the drug barons underground.
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This "Google study" proves without a doubt that they are the real big drug barons of the world.
Blog text (19) -
How did you get involved with a drug baron?
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Did she think he was a drug baron?
Fiction book (1993) -
I don't even know if both of you are drug barons.
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Within a week of her death, during an emergency session of Parliament, the government altered the constitution of the Republic of Ireland to allow the high court to freeze the assets of suspected drug barons.
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The local press had branded the banks "soulless instruments of financial chicanery" and "willing conspirators to the drug barons' deadly trade."
Fiction book (1998) -
They found no evidence of large hierarchical syndicates: "no cartels, no mafia, no drug barons; and, consequently, relatively little corruption" (1992, p. x).
Academic text (2007) -
Chizik's circumstance is similar to drug baron Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi), who was introduced to License to Kill audiences in 1989 as someone who had been on the run from the DEA for years.
Blog text (8) -
The arrest of several drug barons marked a significant victory in the fight against the illegal drug trade.
Synonyms
33
4.9
A person who controls a large illegal drug business
16
6.2
A person who illegally buys and sells large amounts of drugs
How Powerful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from its parts: 'baron' denotes a powerful, dominant figure in a sector and 'drug' specifies the sector (illegal drugs), so a 'drug baron' is a person who controls the drug trade. This compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically (cf. 'drug lord', equivalents in many languages), making it immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
Drug baron comes from joining drug and baron to make a strong picture: a baron was a rich, powerful lord who ruled land and people. So, a drug baron is someone who 'controls' a large illegal drug business.