capitalist

comparative more capitalist · superlative most capitalist

1. Of, or pertaining to, capitalism.

   capitalist economy

   3 more examples

   capitalist countries

   He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record. With this biological framework in place, Corning endeavors to show that the capitalist system as currently practiced in the United States and elsewhere is manifestly unfair.

   2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 13 Feb 2012, page 162

   This is a capitalist society. It’s a fatalistic mantra that seems to get repeated to anyone who questions why America can’t be more fair or equal. But around the world, there are many types of capitalist societies, ranging from liberating to exploitative, protective to abusive, democratic to unregulated.

   2019 August 14, Matthew Desmond, “In order to understand the brutality of American capitalism, you have to start on the plantation”, in New York Times

2. Supporting or endorsing capitalism.

   Well, I thank you for your question, but I have to say we're capitalist—and that is just the way it is. However, we do think that capitalism is not necessarily meeting the needs with the income inequality that we have in our country.

   2017 January 30, CNN Town Hall, spoken by Nancy Pelosi, via CNN

3. nonstandardespecially during the Cold WarAmerican.

plural capitalists

1. The owner of a considerable amount of capital; a wealthy person.

   He paid out, and received on account of the Government, thousands of dollars daily; and the mere handling of such considerable sums made him feel as if he were a great capitalist.

   2000, John W. De Forest, Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secessions to Loyalty

   4 more examples

   Very little of capital acquired in commerce is directed towards agriculture, save where a wealthy capitalist purchases lands for his own use; but it is seldom, if ever, applied to the improvement of the country, in the hands of the original landholders.

   1818, Edward Cooke, “Thought on the Expedency ^([sic]) of Repealing the Usury Laws”, in The Pamphleteer, volume 13, number 25

   Were a wealthy English capitalist to dispose of the property that belongs to him in Êngland, which has been realised by former industry, and take it to Van Diemen's Land, where he could have land for nothing, he would probably discover that he had made no very judicious change.

   1824, John Rooke, An Inquiry into the Principles of National Wealth, page 90

   It has been said that I kept a small account with Hobson Brothers, to whose bank I went, and entered the parlour with that trepidation which most poor men feel on presenting themselves before City magnates and capitalists.

   1854-1855, William Thackeray, “XLVIII. In which Benedick is a Married Man”, in The Newcomes

   The capitalist, often the mere inheritor of wealth, the lucky finder or purchaser of a mine, or a successful gambler in the cereals necessary to life, human and animal, can not boast of his superior power

   1882, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineer's Monthly Journal, volume 16, page 337

2. Someone whose wealth (capital) is invested in business ventures in order to return a profit.

   Near-synonyms: businessman, financier, industrialist

   5 more examples

   The labourers do only receive, and ever have only received, as much as will subsist them, the landlords receive the surplus produce of the more fertile soils, and all the rest of the whole produce of labour in this and in every country goes to the capitalist under the name of profit for the use of his capital.

   1922 [1825], Thomas Hodgskin with G. D. H. Cole, Labour Defended against the Claims of Capital, published 1828, page 31

   As capitalist, he is only capital personified. His soul is the soul of capital. But capital has one single life impulse, the tendency to create value and surplus-value, to make its constant factor, the means of production, absorb the greatest possible amount of surplus labour.

   1906 [1867], Karl Marx, chapter X, in Edward Aveling, Samuel Moore, transl., edited by Friedrich Engels, Capital, volume 1, page 257

   The separation was made complete between the means of production concentrated in the hands of the capitalists, on the one side, and the producers, possessing nothing but their labor-power, on the other.

   1907 [1880], Friedrich Engels, chapter III, in Edward Aveling, transl., Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, page 55

   That is all that is asked; and no capitalist in New England can make one quarter on capital in ordinary investments, on what can be made upon Chicago real estate.

   1871, John Stephen Wright, Wright's Proposition to a Chicago Railway Capitalist, page 40

   “I have tried, as I hinted, to enlist the co-operation of other capitalists, but experience has taught me that any appeal is futile that does not impinge directly upon cupidity.[…]”

   1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad

   Synonyms: businessman, financier, industrialist

3. A person who is a supporter of capitalism.

   In a world of cheap airfares, laptops, and the Internet, we proudly regard mobility as a sign of how advanced we are. Hey, we're nomadic hipster capitalists!

   2007 December 20, Clive Thompson, “Clive Thompson on How the Next Victim of Climate Change Will Be Our Minds”, in Wired Magazine, number 16.01, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2013

   Synonyms: economic liberal, free enterpriser, liberal