middleman
Americannoun
plural
middlemen-
a person who plays an economic role intermediate between producer and retailer or consumer.
-
a person who acts as an intermediary.
noun
-
an independent trader engaged in the distribution of goods from producer to consumer
-
an intermediary
-
theatre the interlocutor in minstrel shows
Etymology
Origin of middleman
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And middlemen who deal in goods from Asian factories aren’t always willing to disclose what it really costs to make a sofa or microwave oven.
They hold up as an example how credit-card companies may be disintermediated and see margins contract, but merchants and consumers would benefit by this process of eliminating the middleman, allowing economic activity to actually increase.
From MarketWatch
How often does a president have the opportunity to speak to the American people directly, without a middleman?
Palantir bears have argued that the company is just an “AI wrapper” on top of existing large language models, making its technology a middleman that could be easily replaced or cut out.
From MarketWatch
They have done their homework, found the factory, and cut out the middleman.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
