Library / English Dictionary

PROFIT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The advantageous quality of being beneficial

Synonyms:

gain; profit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("profit" is a kind of...):

advantage; vantage (the quality of having a superior or more favorable position)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "profit"):

account (the quality of taking advantage)

gainfulness; lucrativeness; profitability; profitableness (the quality of affording gain or benefit or profit)

Derivation:

profit (derive a benefit from)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses)

Synonyms:

earnings; lucre; net; net income; net profit; profit; profits

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Hypernyms ("profit" is a kind of...):

income (the financial gain (earned or unearned) accruing over a given period of time)

Meronyms (parts of "profit"):

part; percentage; portion; share (assets belonging to or due to or contributed by an individual person or group)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "profit"):

dividend (that part of the earnings of a corporation that is distributed to its shareholders; usually paid quarterly)

accumulation ((finance) profits that are not paid out as dividends but are added to the capital base of the corporation)

markup (the amount added to the cost to determine the asking price)

gross profit; gross profit margin; margin ((finance) the net sales minus the cost of goods and services sold)

filthy lucre (shameful profit)

fast buck; quick buck (quick or easy earnings)

cleanup; killing (a very large profit)

windfall profit (profit that occurs unexpectedly as a consequence of some event not controlled by those who profit from it)

earning per share (the portion of a company's profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock)

Derivation:

profit (make a profit; gain money or materially)

profiteer (someone who makes excessive profit (especially on goods in short supply))

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a profit; gain money or materially

Example:

The company has not profited from the merger

Synonyms:

profit; turn a profit

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "profit" is one way to...):

bring in; clear; earn; gain; make; pull in; realise; realize; take in (earn on some commercial or business transaction; earn as salary or wages)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "profit"):

line one's pockets (make a lot of money)

turn a nice dime; turn a nice dollar; turn a nice penny (make a satisfactory profit)

clean up (make a big profit; often in a short period of time)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Antonym:

break even (make neither profit nor loss)

lose (fail to make money in a business; make a loss or fail to profit)

Derivation:

profit (the excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Derive a benefit from

Example:

She profited from his vast experience

Synonyms:

benefit; gain; profit

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "profit" is one way to...):

acquire; get (come into the possession of something concrete or abstract)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "profit"):

cash in on (take advantage of or capitalize on)

profiteer (make an unreasonable profit, as on the sale of difficult to obtain goods)

capitalise; capitalize; take advantage (draw advantages from)

pyramid (enlarge one's holdings on an exchange on a continued rise by using paper profits as margin to buy additional amounts)

clear; net; sack; sack up (make as a net profit)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

profit (the advantageous quality of being beneficial)

Credits

 Context examples: 

At Issodun I and three Welshmen came upon a house which all others had passed, and we had the profit of it to ourselves.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations is a New York-based non-profit education and information resource on breast cancer in the US.

(National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations, NCI Thesaurus)

I write without any view to profit or praise.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The stranger learned about twenty words at the first lesson; most of them, indeed, were those which I had before understood, but I profited by the others.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

She knew nothing of drawing—nothing of taste: and she listened to them with an attention which brought her little profit, for they talked in phrases which conveyed scarcely any idea to her.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I mean to make my profit of Mrs Wallis, however.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Applying nitrogen at the correct levels can optimize yield and profit while keeping excess nutrients out of rivers, lakes and groundwater.

(New Test Can Determine Nitrogen Levels in Soil, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

A non-profit NCI-supported organization with the purpose of promoting excellence in the quality and integrity of clinical and basic scientific research in the field of gynecologic malignancies.

(Gynecologic Oncology Group, NCI Thesaurus)

A non-profit organization specializing in bioinformatics tool development and comparative genomics research.

(Fellowship for the Interpretation of Genomes, NCI Thesaurus)

A non-profit organization that allows scientists and physicians participating in clinical bone marrow transplantation to share their experience and develop co-operative studies.

(European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, NCI Thesaurus)