captain of industry
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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.