gainful

  • 1gainful — gain‧ful [ˈgeɪnfl] adjective [only before a noun] formal gainful employment/​work/​activity work or activity for which you are paid: • The United States now has a far higher proportion of its population in gainful employment than any other… …

    Financial and business terms

  • 2Gainful — Gain ful, a. Profitable; advantageous; lucrative. A gainful speculation. Macaulay. {Gain ful*ly}, adv. {Gain ful*ness}, n. [1913 Webster] …

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • 3gainful — I adjective advantageous, beneficial, fertile, fruitful, lucrative, lucrosus, money making, paying, productive, profitable, quaestuosus, remunerative, rewarding, useful, valuable, well paying, worthwhile associated concepts: gainful employment II …

    Law dictionary

  • 4gainful — (adj.) 1540s (implied in gainfully), from GAIN (Cf. gain) + FUL (Cf. ful). Phrase gainfully employed attested from 1796 …

    Etymology dictionary

  • 5gainful — *paying, remunerative, lucrative, profitable Analogous words: productive, yielding, bearing (see corresponding verbs at BEAR) …

    New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • 6gainful — [adj] very productive, profitable advantageous, beneficial, fat, fruitful, generous, going, going concern*, good, in the black*, lucrative, lush, moneymaking, paid off, paying, remunerative, rewarding, rich, satisfying, substantial, sweet*,… …

    New thesaurus

  • 7gainful — ► ADJECTIVE ▪ serving to increase wealth or resources. DERIVATIVES gainfully adverb gainfulness noun …

    English terms dictionary

  • 8gainful — [gān′fəl] adj. producing gain; profitable gainfully adv. gainfulness n …

    English World dictionary

  • 9gainful — [[t]ge͟ɪnfʊl[/t]] ADJ: ADJ n If you are in gainful employment, you have a job for which you are paid. [FORMAL] The lack of money comes from lack of opportunities for gainful employment. Derived words: gainfully ADV ADV ed Both parents were… …

    English dictionary

  • 10gainful — adjective Date: 1553 productive of gain ; profitable < gainful employment > • gainfully adverb • gainfulness noun …

    New Collegiate Dictionary