Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The character of being mercenary; venality; regard to hire or reward; action or conduct uniformly prompted by the love of gain or the acquisition of money as a chief end.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being mercenary; venality.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state or condition of being mercenary.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

mercenary +‎ -ness

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word mercenariness.

Examples

  • The Western Front does not cover everything -- the deceptions of the Bush Administration, the unintelligence of the intelligence community, the incompetence of the US civilian authority in Baghdad, the mercenariness of the humanitarian and reconstruction industry, the inflexibility of the US military leadership - no one film could indulge all those wrongs.

    Stewart Nusbaumer: Film Review: The Western Front 2010

  • You attack of our soldiers and label them as mercenariness.

    Matthew Yglesias » Der Dolchstoss 2007

  • Why are mercenariness not entering the area to find him?

    For $25 Million, No Way, But for $50 Million I’ll Think About It - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com 2007

  • This attribution of mercenariness to Burke (who had in fact accepted a small pension from the British government for services rendered, and who had also been the London lobbyist or representative of the colony of New York during his defense of the rights of the American colonists) is also to be found in the work of Thomas Paine and Dr. Joseph Priestley.

    Reactionary Prophet 2004

  • This attribution of mercenariness to Burke (who had in fact accepted a small pension from the British government for services rendered, and who had also been the London lobbyist or representative of the colony of New York during his defense of the rights of the American colonists) is also to be found in the work of Thomas Paine and Dr. Joseph Priestley.

    Reactionary Prophet 2004

  • Belmont, for him, is a great recusant house where "mercy ... redeems the mercenariness of the Protestant market" in Venice, and Portia, as the epitome of "matriarchal Catholicism," presides in private over the rites and festivals of the Roman Church while providing a safe haven for her coreligionists.

    The One and Only Barton, Anne 2006

  • But having there thus elevated and puffed him up, he again here throws him down to mercenariness and sophistry; nay, to asking money and even to receiving it beforehand, sometimes at the very entrance of his scholar, and otherwhiles after some time past.

    Essays and Miscellanies 2004

  • Neither would we have achieved the glory we have achieved so many years. [clearing indistinct words from original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision version] We should accomplish this based upon morality, conscience, patriotism, and integrity, because there have always been athletes, they always have, who in recent times have been lured by mercenariness, by commercialism, and by greed.

    Cuba: Comparison--Castro Blames U.S. for Defections 1996

  • We should accomplish this based upon morality, conscience, patriotism, and integrity, because there have always been athletes who in recent times have been lured by mercenariness, by commercialism, and by greed.

    Cuba: Castro Blames U.S. for Defections 1996

  • _Kindly tell me if the Mr. KIPLING who has been making such a splendid speech about the Cabinet and their mercenariness and the treacherous nature of the Irish is the same Mr. KIPLING who wrote "The Recessional" and "Without Benefit of Clergy"?

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, June 3, 1914 Various

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.