profit

Universal Words noun, verb noun 1 [C,U] the money that you make in business or by selling things, especially after paying the costs involved: a rise / an increase / a drop / a fall in profits * The company made a healthy profit of $106m last year. * Net profit (= after you have paid costs and tax) was up 16.1%. * The sale generated record profits. * We should be able to sell the house at a profit. * The agency is voluntary and not run for profit. * There isn't much profit in running a restaurant these days. OPPLOSS 2 [U] (formal) the advantage that you get from doing sth: Future lawyers could study this text with profit. verb ~ (by / from sth) (formal) to get sth useful from a situation; to be useful to sb or give them an advantage: [V] Farmers are profiting from the new legislation. * We tried to profit by our mistakes (= learn from them). * [VN] Many local people believe the development will profit them.