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PROFITABLE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Yielding material gain or profit
Example:
profitable speculation on the stock market
Classified under:
Similar:
bankable (guaranteed to bring a profit)
gainful; paid; paying (yielding a fair profit)
economic (financially rewarding)
lucrative; moneymaking; remunerative (producing a sizeable profit)
Also:
advantageous; favorable; favourable (giving an advantage)
productive (producing or capable of producing (especially abundantly))
useful; utile (being of use or service)
Antonym:
unprofitable (producing little or no profit or gain)
Derivation:
profitability; profitableness (the quality of affording gain or benefit or profit)
profitableness (the quality of being encouraging or promising of a successful outcome)
Context examples:
Susan was growing very fond of her, and though without any of the early delight in books which had been so strong in Fanny, with a disposition much less inclined to sedentary pursuits, or to information for information's sake, she had so strong a desire of not appearing ignorant, as, with a good clear understanding, made her a most attentive, profitable, thankful pupil.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Call it gossip, if you will, but when Nurse Rooke has half an hour's leisure to bestow on me, she is sure to have something to relate that is entertaining and profitable: something that makes one know one's species better.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
She was, in fact, beginning very much to wonder that she had ever thought him pleasing at all; and his sight was so inseparably connected with some very disagreeable feelings, that, except in a moral light, as a penance, a lesson, a source of profitable humiliation to her own mind, she would have been thankful to be assured of never seeing him again.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
"The crop we are going to raise is a profitable one," and Jo laughed.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Finally, November 29 brings a great day to sign papers when Saturn and Mercury work together to make your alliance lasting and profitable.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
And now, Watson, if you can endure the draught from a broken window, I think that half an hour in my study over a cigar may afford you some profitable amusement.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Have you posts of profitable pecuniary emolument?
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
"But may I inquire how you intend to support the establishment? If all the pupils are little ragamuffins, I'm afraid your crop won't be profitable in a worldly sense, Mrs. Bhaer."
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
If you can wait to sign on December 27, that would be wonderful—Jupiter’s closeness to the Sun suggests a very profitable outcome.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
I think that I can help you to pass an hour in an interesting and profitable manner, said Holmes, drawing his chair up to the table, and spreading out in front of him the various papers upon which were recorded the antics of the dancing men.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
