Meaning

(usually derogatory) An employee who is hired, often to perform unpleasant tasks with little independence..

Definitions by Sense

1. (usually derogatory) An employee who is hired, often to perform unpleasant tasks with little independence.
2. (usually derogatory) Someone who does a job purely for money, rather than out of interest in the work itself.
3. A horse for hire.
4. (obsolete) A prostitute.

Example Sentences

Is there not an appointed time to man vpon earth? are not his dayes alſo like the dayes of an hireling?

When my poor James was in the small-pox, did I allow any hireling to nurse him?

[…]it may bee truely affirmed, that no kinde of men loue buſineſſe for it ſelfe, but thoſe that are learned; for other perſons loue it for profite; as an hireling that loues the worke for the wages;

These vain bickerings / Are spawn'd in courts by base intrigues and baser / Hirelings, who live by lies on good men's lives.

In the afternoon they went to a neighbouring livery stables to look for hirellings.

Word Forms

• hirelings

Synonyms for hireling

Related Words

When Should You Use Hireling?

Use hireling when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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