Definition of: profit

(prof′it) noun
1. Any accession of good
—physical, mental, or moral
—from labor or exertion; benefit; return.
2. Often plural Excess of returns over outlay or expenditure: a business yielding fair profits.
3. The return from the employment of capital after deducting the amount paid for raw material and for wages, real or estimated rent, interest, insurance, etc.
4. That part of the amount received for goods which exceeds the sum originally paid for them with or without all secondary expenses involved.
5. The income of invested property without counting its increased value by any actual rise in the market.
6. In invested capital, the ratio of the increment to the actual amount of capital for a given year.
—gross profit The profit apparent on the face of a transaction or business; the excess of receipts from sales over expenditures for purchase: opposed to net profit, the surplus remaining after all necessary deductions, as for interest, transportation, bad debts, etc.
—v.i.
1. To be of advantage or benefit.
2. To derive gain or benefit.
—v.t.
3. To be of profit or advantage to. ♦ Homophone: prophet. [<OF <L profectus, pp. of proficere go forward. See PROFICIENT.] Synonyms (noun): advantage, avail, benefit, emolument, expediency, gain, good, improvement, proceeds, receipts, return, returns, service, utility, value. The returns or receipts include all that is received from any outlay or investment; the profit is the excess (if any) of the receipts over the outlay; hence, in government, morals, etc., the profit is what is really good, helpful, useful, valuable. Utility is chiefly used in the sense of some immediate or personal and generally some material good. Advantage is that which gives one a vantage ground, either for coping with competitors or with difficulties, needs, or demands; as, to have the advantage of a good education; it is frequently used of what one has beyond another or secures at the expense of another; as, to have the advantage in argument, or to take advantage in a bargain. Gain is what one secures beyond what he previously possessed. Benefit is anything that does one good. Emolument is profit, return, or value accruing through official position. Expediency has respect to profit or advantage, real or supposed, considered apart from or perhaps in opposition to right, in actions having a moral character. See UTILITY. Antonyms: damage, detriment, disadvantage, harm, hurt, injury, loss, ruin, waste.