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暴利 (bào lì) — excessive profits; windfall profits (often obtained through illegal or unethical means)

Definition

暴利 refers to excessive, often illegal or unethical profits (e.g. from price gouging or monopoly). Unlike 盈利 (any financial profit), 暴利 specifically implies the gain is unreasonably large and usually illegitimate.

noun
excessive profitswindfall profits (often obtained through illegal or unethical means)
Easily confused

Examples

  • 暴利。
    Tā tōng guò lǒng duàn shì chǎng huò qǔ le jù é bào lì.
    He obtained huge excessive profits by monopolizing the market.
  • 暴利。
    Zhè zhǒng bào lì shì jiàn lì zài sǔn hài xiāo fèi zhě lì yì de jī chǔ shàng de.
    This kind of excessive profit is built on harming consumers' interests.
  • 暴利。
    Zhèng fǔ chū tái zhèng cè dǎ jī fēi fǎ bào lì.
    The government introduced policies to crack down on illegal excessive profits.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

暴bàosudden
利lìprofit

暴 “sudden” plus 利 “profit”: a sudden, excessive gain.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

The earliest form paired 虎 and 戈, a tiger and a weapon. The later 暴 came from a picture of hands drying something in the sun.

Open 暴 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

利 combines 禾 (grain) and 刀 (knife), showing a knife used to cut grain.

Open 利 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9

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