enterprise
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Related to enterprise: budget, Enterprise value
free enterprise
Something that one pursues, often illegally, as a means to personal gain. Did you hear that she's started dabbling in some free enterprise and selling things on the black market?
See also: enterprise, free
private enterprise
Something that one pursues, often illegally, as a means to personal gain. Did you hear that she's started dabbling in some private enterprise and selling things on the black market?
See also: enterprise, private
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
free enterprise
Also, private enterprise. An undertaking on one's own behalf, especially a shady or illegal one. For example, The city treasurer didn't bother with competitive bids; the spirit of free enterprise just led him to his brother-in-law , or The sergeant indulged in a little private enterprise, selling cigarettes on the black market . This sarcastic application of a term that has meant, since about 1885, the freedom of private businesses to operate competitively for profit with a minimum of government control, dates from the mid-1900s.
See also: enterprise, free
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.