profit

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An advantageous gain or return; benefit.
2. n. The return received on a business undertaking after all operating expenses have been met.
3. n. The return received on an investment after all charges have been paid. Often used in the plural.
4. n. The rate of increase in the net worth of a business enterprise in a given accounting period.
5. n. Income received from investments or property.
6. n. The amount received for a commodity or service in excess of the original cost.
7. v. To make a gain or profit.
8. v. To derive advantage; benefit: profiting from the other team's mistakes. See Synonyms at benefit.
9. v. To be beneficial to.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Advancement; improvement.
2. n. Any advantage; accession of good from labor or exertion; the acquisition of anything valuable, corporeal or intellectual, temporal or spiritual.
3. n. Specifically, the advantage or gain resulting to the owner of capital from its employment in any undertaking; the excess of the selling price over the original cost of anything; acquisition beyond expenditure; pecuniary gain in any action or occupation; gain; emolument: in commerce commonly used in the plural. As used in political economy, profit means what is left of the product of industry after deducting the wages, the price of raw materials, and the rent paid in the production, and is considered as being composed of three parts — interest, risk or insurance, and wages of superintendence. Profits in the law of real property designate rights of taking something off or out of the land. as, for instance, the right of common, as distinguished from casements, such as ways and access of air and light, which do not involve taking anything from the land.
4. n. Synonyms Benefit, Utility, etc. (see advantage), service, welfare, behalf, behoof, weal, good.
5. n. Revenue, etc. (see income), return, avails.
6. To benefit; advantage; be of service to; help on; improve; advance.
7. To make improvement; improve; grow better; make progress, intellectually or morally: as, to profit by reading or by experience.
8. To gain in a material sense; become better off or richer: as, to profit by trade or manufactures.
9. To be of use or advantage; bring good.

Wiktionary

1. n. Total income or cash flow minus expenditures. The money or other benefit a non-governmental organization or individual receives in exchange for products and services sold at an advertised price.
2. n. dated, literary Benefit, positive result obtained.
3. n. law In property law, a nonpossessory interest in land whereby a party is entitled to enter the land of another for the purpose of taking the soil or the substance of the soil (coal, oil, minerals, and in some jurisdictions timber and game).
4. v. transitive To benefit (somebody), be of use to (somebody).
5. v. intransitive To benefit, gain.
6. v. intransitive To take advantage of, exploit, use.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Acquisition beyond expenditure; excess of value received for producing, keeping, or selling, over cost; hence, pecuniary gain in any transaction or occupation; emolument.
2. n. Accession of good; valuable results; useful consequences; benefit; avail; gain; as, an office of profit
3. v. To be of service to; to be good to; to help on; to benefit; to advantage; to avail; to aid.
4. v. To gain advantage; to make improvement; to improve; to gain; to advance.
5. v. To be of use or advantage; to do or bring good.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. make a profit; gain money or materially
2. n. the advantageous quality of being beneficial
3. v. derive a benefit from
4. n. the excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses)