From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpaymasterpay‧mas‧ter /ˈpeɪˌmɑːstə $ -ˌmæstər/ noun [countable] 1 SCCPAY FORa powerful person or organization that secretly pays and controls another person or organization The assassin’s paymasters were never identified.2 someone who is responsible for giving people their wages that they are owed, for example an official in a factory or the army
Examples from the Corpus
paymaster• As paymaster he was responsible for the organization of the finance required in the restoration of the neglected royal palaces.• And with no financial paymasters we avoid the compromises.• Yet he is a survivor, sticking to his sobering material and plain aesthetic no matter who his paymaster is.• It is further evidence that its policies are merely the result of what its paymasters, the trade unions, say.• Like priests, paymasters in the Salomon empire followed a time-honored pattern.• They want to see an end to the image of trade unions as Labour's paymaster and, by implication, policy-maker.• In a payroll robbery at a shoe factory in South Braintree, Massachusetts, the paymaster and his guard were killed.• After it's been dished out the paymasters ride on to take the pay to the men cutting down the forest.From Longman Business Dictionarypaymasterpay‧mas‧ter /ˈpeɪˌmɑːstə-ˌmæstər/ noun [countable]1ACCOUNTINGJOBORGANIZATIONSa person or organization responsible for giving people their wages or the money they are owedPaychecks are routed to an employee through their department paymaster.2journalism someone powerful who pays other people to do something illegal or dangerous for themcriminal paymasters 