one-percenter

plural one-percenters · alternative 1-percenter · alternative one percenter

1. A member of the top one percent of a population by wealth, ability, etc. (same as the ninety-ninth percentile), especially in a society with high wealth inequality.

   "But a few survive, those with the right genetic trait, the one-percenters that will carry on and reproduce that trait."

   2004, George Black, The Trout Pool Paradox: The American Lives of Three Rivers, page 204

   4 more examples

   An upper one-percenter in the income and wealth distributions, Rubin commuted by private jet between the tony Jefferson Hotel in Washington and his Park home in New York.

   2000, E. Ray Canterbery, Wall Street Capitalism: The Theory of the Bondholding Class, page 138

   When critics pointer out that the bulk of his tax cut went to the wealthiest one percent of American […], after Bush got finished spinning, it's amazing how many Americans ended up feeling sorry for those poor, deprived one percenters.

   2002, Bill Press, Spin This!: All the Ways We Don't Tell the Truth, page 17

   [Y]ou've been one of the "one-percenters." You've always been in that rarefied top one percent of the people doing whatever you were doing at any given moment in your life.

   2006, David Weber, In Fury Born

   I'd perfected my game, flying first-class all over the world, staying in five-star resort hotels, and seducing scores of one-percenters into stashing their fortunes in Swiss numbered accounts, no questions asked.

   2018, Oliver Bullough, quoting Bradley Birkenfeld, chapter 17, in Moneyland, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 243

   Antonyms: 99 percent

2. idiomaticcomedyAn esoteric joke which is unlikely to be appreciated by a general audience.
3. idiomaticAn individual who seeks recognition for an idea without contributing the substantial effort required to realize or implement it.
4. idiomaticinformalAn outlaw biker, such as a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle club.

   There is, without a doubt, the "one-percenter" subculture consisting of individuals who are social renegades in the criminal sense.

   2004, Karen Larsen, Breaking the Limit: One Woman's Motorcycle Journey Through North America, page 271

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   The patch holders themselves recognize that within the framework of the club there exists a radical faction - "the heavies" or "one percenters".

   1991, Daniel R. Wolf, The Rebels: A Brotherhood of Outlaw Bikers, page 272

   It was Sonny's idea to ally the various clubs under a diamond-shaped "one-percenter" patch. He took it a step further by becoming the first Hells Angel to have the famous "one-percenter" drawn on his arm.

   2002, Chuck Zito, Street Justice, page 106