robber baron
8
8.2
- noun
- /ˈrɑːbər ˈbɛrən/
- Literature
:
barón ladrón
- The wealthy businessman was often labeled a robber baron for his ruthless tactics in expanding his empire.
- robber barons and financiers
- robber barons of the railroad
- age of the robber barons
While these men were far from being perfect, I'm not sure that it's reasonable to characterise them as robber barons.
- While these men were far from being perfect, I'm not sure that it's reasonable to characterise them as robber barons.
- And they supported in more or less dignified ways, but nonetheless support the workers movement against the robber barons.
- But it had become a place of robber barons in the Gilded Age and a land of rising and high inequality.
- I do want to just go back to this robber Baron era that you just brought up, which I totally agree with.
Examples
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But the American people stood up to the robber barons back then and busted the trust.
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The power and corruption of big business peaked with the "robber barons."
Blog text (24) -
The same thing was done by the robber barons back in the day.
Blog text (15) -
Anyone remember when those robber barons created a race to the bottom by "playing" states against each other?
Blog text (12) -
Wolff's conclusion: the current era is witness to the most extreme level of wealth concentration since the robber baron era.
Academic text (1998) -
There's a new generation of people as rich as the so-called "robber barons" of the late 19th century.
Blog text (6) -
The negative, robber-baron image of yesterday's captains of industry was replaced by one of business executives who represented "enlightened justice."
Academic text (2001) -
Many of the nation's leading college presidents rivaled the corporate "robber barons" in their antagonism toward labor.
Academic text (1994) -
The same is true for the hubristic modern robber barons latched onto the backs of the middle class.
Blog text (10) -
Are these worse than the sins of Andrew Carnegie, J. P. Morgan, Henry Clay Frick, and the robber barons who founded older American art museums?
Academic text (2012)
Synonyms
38
5.5
A very rich and powerful person who owns or controls big companies
28
6.1
A very rich and powerful person who controls a large business or industry
8
8.0
A person who makes large unfair profits by charging high prices during a shortage
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
robber + baron
The constituents 'robber' (one who robs) and 'baron' (a powerful/wealthy figure) allow a learner to infer a wealthy person who gains wealth by 'robbing' or acting unscrupulously, so the basic negative meaning is reasonably derivable. However, the term carries historical and socio-economic connotations (late-19th/early-20th industrial magnates) and functions as a conventionalized label, so the full nuance is not entirely predictable to a B1 learner without exposure.
Etymology
Robber baron may come from old stories about lords who acted like robbers and were powerful barons, standing by a road or bridge and taking money from travellers. So today, robber baron means a rich, powerful business leader who gets money in 'unfair' or 'dishonest' ways.