profit

Pluralprofits

Formsprofits, profiting, profited

1. 1
   money madenouncountable or uncountable

   The money or other benefit that remains after subtracting expenses from the total income a business or person earns from sales.

   The company reported a record profit for the third quarter.

   Most of the year's profit came from online sales.

   UsageBusinesses make a profit on a sale and sell at a profit; both profit and profits can describe a year's total.

   Similarearnings, gain, return, surplus

   Oppositeloss, deficit

   Note

   In accounting and economics this is what remains of income once costs come out. Accountants divide it into gross, operating or net, depending on which costs have been deducted. The plural often names a business's earnings, as when firms shift profits to low-tax countries, and Samuel Johnson warned in The Rambler (1750): 'Let no man anticipate uncertain profits.'

2. 2
   gain fromverbintransitive

   To gain money or some other benefit from something, sometimes by taking unfair advantage of a situation or of other people.

   Investors who buy early often profit when the company grows.

   She profited greatly from her years studying abroad.

   UsageThe source of the gain follows from, sometimes by: profit from experience, profit by a mistake.

3. 3
   good resultnoundateduncountable

   A benefit or advantage gained from something; a positive result that comes from an action or experience.

   She found great profit in the quiet hours she spent reading by the fire.

   This I speak for your own profit.

   1611, The Holy Bible, King James Version

   UsageMostly in set phrases: no profit in doing something, read with profit, of little profit to someone.

   Similarbenefit, advantage, value, good, use

   Oppositeharm, detriment

   Note

   Here the word stays close to its Latin source, profectus, "advance, progress, growth": a profit is anything that moves you forward, not only money. The King James Bible of 1611 and Shakespeare's Othello use it this way.

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