"company man" meaning in English

See company man in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-company man.ogg Forms: company men [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun|company men}} company man (plural company men)
  1. A male employee who has a great—and often, in the view of others, an excessive—commitment to serving the interests of the organization which employs him. Synonyms: organization man, suit, yes man
    Sense id: en-company_man-en-noun-R3-wE99M
  2. A spy or other operative of an intelligence service, especially the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency. Categories (topical): People
    Sense id: en-company_man-en-noun-GTekRm6A Disambiguation of People: 37 63 0 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 42 58 1 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 40 59 1 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 38 61 1
  3. A male homosexual.
    Sense id: en-company_man-en-noun-C1Za5CsT

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "company men",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "company men"
      },
      "expansion": "company man (plural company men)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1957 Feb. 16, Ralph Bernstein (AP), \"Bell ‘Savior’ of Pro Football,\" Spokesman-Review (USA), p. 58 (retrieved 12 July 2012)",
          "text": "[B]oth sides accuse him of favoring the other. Certain players have accused him of being a company man."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1981, Donald Alan Messerschmidt, Anthropologists at Home in North America, →ISBN, page 226:",
          "text": "What was expected of men, it seemed, was to be a company man. Foster (1969:156) refers to this as the assumption that \"achievement of organizational goals represents the highest value.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997 August 21, James Sterngold, “Leo Jaffe, Hollywood Deal Maker, Dies at 88”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-07-12:",
          "text": "\"He was an old-fashioned company man. He lived and breathed Columbia Pictures.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 September 26, Richard Corliss, “John Ford at Fox”, in Time:",
          "text": "Like virtually every other director in the '30s and '40s, Ford was obliged to be a company man, rankling under his boss's gaze.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A male employee who has a great—and often, in the view of others, an excessive—commitment to serving the interests of the organization which employs him."
      ],
      "id": "en-company_man-en-noun-R3-wE99M",
      "links": [
        [
          "employee",
          "employee"
        ],
        [
          "excessive",
          "excessive"
        ],
        [
          "commitment",
          "commitment"
        ],
        [
          "serving",
          "serve"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "organization man"
        },
        {
          "word": "suit"
        },
        {
          "word": "yes man"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "42 58 1",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "40 59 1",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "38 61 1",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "37 63 0",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1990 November 20, Michael Wines, “Washington at Work: After 30 Years in Shadows, a Spymaster Emerges”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-07-13:",
          "text": "But many say he nevertheless is more in the mold of the quiet, no-questions-asked company men who built the C.I.A. in the 1960's and 70's and ran it in the 80's.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 November 24, James Luxford, “REVIEW: Body Of Lies”, in entertainmentwise.com, retrieved 2012-07-13:",
          "text": "Body of Lies is set in the grim and violent world of Middle East counter-terrorism. Roger Ferris (DiCaprio) is the CIA’s man on the front line. . . . His every move is instructed and monitored by his boss Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe), a fast-talking and amoral company man running the war on terrorism via satellite.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A spy or other operative of an intelligence service, especially the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency."
      ],
      "id": "en-company_man-en-noun-GTekRm6A",
      "links": [
        [
          "spy",
          "spy"
        ],
        [
          "operative",
          "operative"
        ],
        [
          "intelligence",
          "intelligence"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A male homosexual."
      ],
      "id": "en-company_man-en-noun-C1Za5CsT",
      "links": [
        [
          "homosexual",
          "homosexual"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-company man.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/6f/En-au-company_man.ogg/En-au-company_man.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/En-au-company_man.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "company man"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:People"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "company men",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "company men"
      },
      "expansion": "company man (plural company men)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1957 Feb. 16, Ralph Bernstein (AP), \"Bell ‘Savior’ of Pro Football,\" Spokesman-Review (USA), p. 58 (retrieved 12 July 2012)",
          "text": "[B]oth sides accuse him of favoring the other. Certain players have accused him of being a company man."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1981, Donald Alan Messerschmidt, Anthropologists at Home in North America, →ISBN, page 226:",
          "text": "What was expected of men, it seemed, was to be a company man. Foster (1969:156) refers to this as the assumption that \"achievement of organizational goals represents the highest value.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997 August 21, James Sterngold, “Leo Jaffe, Hollywood Deal Maker, Dies at 88”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-07-12:",
          "text": "\"He was an old-fashioned company man. He lived and breathed Columbia Pictures.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 September 26, Richard Corliss, “John Ford at Fox”, in Time:",
          "text": "Like virtually every other director in the '30s and '40s, Ford was obliged to be a company man, rankling under his boss's gaze.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A male employee who has a great—and often, in the view of others, an excessive—commitment to serving the interests of the organization which employs him."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "employee",
          "employee"
        ],
        [
          "excessive",
          "excessive"
        ],
        [
          "commitment",
          "commitment"
        ],
        [
          "serving",
          "serve"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "organization man"
        },
        {
          "word": "suit"
        },
        {
          "word": "yes man"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1990 November 20, Michael Wines, “Washington at Work: After 30 Years in Shadows, a Spymaster Emerges”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-07-13:",
          "text": "But many say he nevertheless is more in the mold of the quiet, no-questions-asked company men who built the C.I.A. in the 1960's and 70's and ran it in the 80's.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 November 24, James Luxford, “REVIEW: Body Of Lies”, in entertainmentwise.com, retrieved 2012-07-13:",
          "text": "Body of Lies is set in the grim and violent world of Middle East counter-terrorism. Roger Ferris (DiCaprio) is the CIA’s man on the front line. . . . His every move is instructed and monitored by his boss Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe), a fast-talking and amoral company man running the war on terrorism via satellite.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A spy or other operative of an intelligence service, especially the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "spy",
          "spy"
        ],
        [
          "operative",
          "operative"
        ],
        [
          "intelligence",
          "intelligence"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A male homosexual."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "homosexual",
          "homosexual"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-company man.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/6f/En-au-company_man.ogg/En-au-company_man.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/En-au-company_man.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "company man"
}

Download raw JSONL data for company man meaning in English (3.4kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.