hireling
/ˈhʌɪəlɪŋ
/noun chiefly derogatory
1A person employed to do menial work: he is a poorly paid hireling of a wealthy white woman...
- For ten years before secession, Northerners were commonly referred to as ‘mongrels and hirelings.’
- Then we sign petitions to crowd our ballots with initiatives, in effect telling our hirelings that we can do a better job than they can.
- These fascists and hirelings are not rising up, they are stamping back down.
1.1A person who works purely for material reward: the government’s paid hirelings assure us that we’re on our way out of recession...
- Evans said, "he did not see how hireling, landless tenant slaves could ever get the means to buy land."
- It sounds more like a hireling, who would run at the first sign of a wolf.
- To such had the policy of the great Irish leader brought the ignorant people who trusted him and his hirelings.
Origin
Mid 16th century: from hire + -ling, on the pattern of Dutch huurling.