Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One that buys goods or services, as from a store or business.
  • noun Informal An individual with whom one must deal.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A collector of customs; a toll-gatherer; a tax-gatherer.
  • noun One who purchases goods or a supply for any current need from another; a purchaser; a buyer; a patron, as of a house of entertainment.
  • noun A prostitute.
  • noun One who has special customs, as of the country or city.
  • noun Any one with whom a person has to deal; especially, one with whom dealing is difficult or disagreeable; hence, a fellow: as, a queer customer; a rough customer.
  • Being a customer or customers; purchasing; buying.
  • Made to the order of or for a customer; specially ordered by a customer and made for him: opposed to ready-made, or made for the market generally: as, customer work.

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

  • noun obsolete One who collect customs; a toll gatherer.
  • noun One who regularly or repeatedly makes purchases of a trader; a purchaser; a buyer.
  • noun A person with whom a business house has dealings.
  • noun colloq. A peculiar person; -- in an indefinite sense.
  • noun obsolete A lewd woman.

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

  • noun A patron; one who purchases or receives a product or service from a business or merchant, or intends to do so.
  • noun informal A person, especially one engaging in some sort of interaction with others.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun someone who pays for goods or services

Etymologies

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Examples

  • If so, we have to use SQL clause to filter the records, then put them into the seperate charts one by one. customer = @customer

    ASP.NET Forums el_mojo 2010

  • The middle of the twentieth century also saw the first incarnations of the term customer service, as businesses started to answer customers questions and take orders by phone.

    Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us Emily Yellin 2009

  • By the end of the 1980s, the term customer service had become a part of our everyday lexicon.

    Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us Emily Yellin 2009

  • Im proud to work for a company that takes the term customer service so literally.

    Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us Emily Yellin 2009

  • The UK television industry's main customer is still the US, where British formats including American Idol (from Pop Idol) and Dancing with the Stars – the US version of Strictly Come Dancing – continue to pull in massive audiences.

    Export of British television shows overseas rises by 9% Mark Sweney 2010

  • One manager sent me an email chastising me for using the term customer internally.

    badger Diary Entry badger 2006

  • Our corporate policy is to use the term customer when referring to internal customers.

    badger Diary Entry badger 2006

  • * Pause in the Story* •   The term customer going forward can also represent a   

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2009

  • * Pause in the Story* •   The term customer going forward can also represent a   

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2009

  • Her responsibilities are now handled by Rob Bacon who will take the title customer and employee brand director when he joins later this year from Carphone Warehouse.

    mad.co.uk : Today's Breaking News 2009

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