"lucre" meaning in English

See lucre in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈl(j)uː.kə/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈluː.kɚ/ [General-American] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lucre.wav
Rhymes: -uːkə(ɹ) Etymology: From Middle English lūcre, lucor, lucour, lucur (“gain in money, profit; money; wages; illicit gain; advantage, benefit”), from Old French lucre or Latin lucrum (“advantage, profit; love of gain, avarice”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂w- (“gain, profit”) + *-tlom (variant of *-trom (suffix forming nouns denoting tools or instruments)). Etymology templates: {{root|en|ine-pro|*leh₂w-|*-trom}}, {{inh|en|enm|lūcre}} Middle English lūcre, {{der|en|fro|lucre}} Old French lucre, {{der|en|la|lucrum|t=advantage, profit; love of gain, avarice}} Latin lucrum (“advantage, profit; love of gain, avarice”), {{der|en|ine-pro|*leh₂w-|t=gain, profit}} Proto-Indo-European *leh₂w- (“gain, profit”), {{glossary|suffix}} suffix, {{glossary|noun}} noun Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} lucre (uncountable)
  1. Money, riches, or wealth, especially when seen as having a corrupting effect or causing greed, or obtained in an underhanded manner. Tags: uncountable Categories (topical): Money Synonyms: mammon Derived forms: filthy lucre Related terms: lucrative, lucratively, lucrativeness, Lucretia, Lucretius, lucriferous, lucrific Translations (money, riches, or wealth): rykdom (Afrikaans), богатство (bogatstvo) [neuter] (Bulgarian), gewin (Dutch), profijt (Dutch), pätäkkä [slang] (Finnish), gain [masculine] (French), profit [masculine] (French), lucre [masculine] (French), пе́чалба (péčalba) [feminine] (Macedonian), па́ри (pári) [feminine, plural] (Macedonian), до́бивка (dóbivka) [feminine] (Macedonian), бо́гатство (bógatstvo) [neuter] (Macedonian), prothaid [feminine] (Scottish Gaelic), lucro (Spanish), budrelw [masculine] (Welsh)
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          "ref": "1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 145:",
          "text": "By-ends and Silver-Demas both agree; / One calls, the other runs, that he may be / A ſharer in his lucre; ſo theſe two / Take up in this World, and no further go.",
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          "text": "When a man bargains for the price of maintaining such or such principles, or of endeavouring to make out such or such a case, without believing in the soundness of the principles or the truth of the case; such a man, whether he touch the cash (or paper-money) before or after the performance of his work, and whether he work with his tongue or his pen, may, I think be fairly charged with seeking after \"base lucre;\" for he, in such case, manifestly sells not only the use of his talents, but his sincerity into the bargain, and drives a traffic as nearly allied to soul-selling as any thing in this world can be; […]",
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          "text": "[…] [I]t's only fair that you should pocket the lucre. I've had my share already.",
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          "word": "rykdom"
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          "text": "When a man bargains for the price of maintaining such or such principles, or of endeavouring to make out such or such a case, without believing in the soundness of the principles or the truth of the case; such a man, whether he touch the cash (or paper-money) before or after the performance of his work, and whether he work with his tongue or his pen, may, I think be fairly charged with seeking after \"base lucre;\" for he, in such case, manifestly sells not only the use of his talents, but his sincerity into the bargain, and drives a traffic as nearly allied to soul-selling as any thing in this world can be; […]",
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          "text": "[…] [I]t's only fair that you should pocket the lucre. I've had my share already.",
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      "sense": "money, riches, or wealth",
      "word": "rykdom"
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    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "money, riches, or wealth",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "lucre"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "péčalba",
      "sense": "money, riches, or wealth",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "пе́чалба"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "pári",
      "sense": "money, riches, or wealth",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "па́ри"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "dóbivka",
      "sense": "money, riches, or wealth",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "до́бивка"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "bógatstvo",
      "sense": "money, riches, or wealth",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "бо́гатство"
    },
    {
      "code": "gd",
      "lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
      "sense": "money, riches, or wealth",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "prothaid"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "money, riches, or wealth",
      "word": "lucro"
    },
    {
      "code": "cy",
      "lang": "Welsh",
      "sense": "money, riches, or wealth",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "budrelw"
    }
  ],
  "word": "lucre"
}

Download raw JSONL data for lucre meaning in English (7.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). 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.