From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmercenarymer‧ce‧na‧ry1 /ˈmɜːsənəri $ ˈmɜːrsəneri/ noun (plural mercenaries) [countable] PMAa soldier who fights for any country or group that will pay him an army of foreign mercenaries a mercenary soldier
Examples from the Corpus
mercenary• Ogre bands are often recruited as mercenaries into the Empire's armies, where their great strength is highly valued.• Yes, but Lonrho had hired mercenaries.• More than eight hundred mercenaries, but not in battle order.• If mercenaries had been protecting the Balkan safe havens, there might never have been the massacre of Srebrenica.• Lawyers in the main were intellectual mercenaries to be bought and sold in any cause...• Like mercenaries, they wrangle and scheme for money wherever money can be found.• On his return to Aquitaine he was able to recruit mercenaries on a large scale.• Colombian police said the mercenaries were hired by drug traffickers.• Nor were mercenaries supplied only by very small or weak States.mercenarymercenary2 adjective SELFISHonly interested in the money you may be able to get from a person, job etc She did it for purely mercenary reasons. a mercenary attitudeExamples from the Corpus
mercenary• To a very recently bereaved family who are struggling with a multiplicity of emotions this early attention to fees can seem mercenary.• Collectors who are really dedicated have to be as mercenary as Boba Fett to get what they want.• For better or worse, with sincerity or mercenary attachment, the hip musical climate was heavily involved.• Sponsors were criticized for their mercenary attitude toward the Olympic games.• Their hair was everywhere in the gusts: a solemn mercenary navy imported by a poor place.• So the choice often comes down to mercenary peacekeeping or no peacekeeping.• At first glance, he resembled a truck driver, or perhaps a mercenary soldier.• He created a chain of fortified villages and strongpoints and established a corps of mercenary troops to guard them.Origin mercenary1 (1300-1400) Latin mercenarius, from merces “payment for work”; → MERCY 