broker

1 of 3

noun

bro·​ker ˈbrō-kər 

plural brokers

1

: someone who acts as an intermediary: such as

a

: an agent who negotiates contracts of purchase and sale (as of real estate, commodities, or securities)

… the 47-year-old real-estate broker figured he could scavenge some used computer equipment for his new firm's downtown office.

—Joellen Perry

see also pawnbroker, stockbroker

b

: an agent who arranges marriages

a marriage broker

… he had traveled to Pakistan late last year and paid around $14,500 to a Chinese broker in the hopes of bringing home a Pakistani bride.

—Salman Masood and Amy Qin

2

: power broker

Though he resigned in 2020, [Shinzo] Abe remained a powerful political broker who continued to push for Japan to take a tougher defense approach.

—William Gallo

3

: someone who sells or distributes something

an information/data broker

insurance brokers

see also honest broker

broker

2 of 3

verb

brokered; brokering; brokers

transitive verb

: to function as a broker with regard to (something, such as an agreement or deal) : to arrange, settle, or control (something) as a broker

… mediators tasked with brokering peace in Sudan …

—The Associated Press

A state-run Egyptian TV station announced that Egypt, a frequent mediator between the sides, had brokered a ceasefire.

—Fares Akram and Ilan Ben Zion

He brokered the sale of many homes and farms throughout his career.

—The Ozark County (Missouri) Times

broker

3 of 3

comparative form of broke entry 2

Synonyms

Noun

• buffer
• conciliator
• go-between
• honest broker
• interceder
• intercessor
• intermediary
• intermediate
• interposer
• mediator
• middleman
• peacemaker

Examples of broker in a Sentence

Noun

the broker in the hostage situation was a prominent reporter that the gunman felt he could trust

all of the local yacht brokers were at the boat show

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Blackstone Private Credit’s S-shares usually have a minimum investment of $2,500, although some brokers can set a higher threshold. —Michelle Fox, CNBC, 16 Oct. 2024

The acquisition of the 3,400 seat theater was announced Tuesday by real estate brokers Avison Young, which represent the buyer. —Pat Saperstein, Variety, 15 Oct. 2024

Verb

Earlier this year, two obscure companies from Northern Louisiana brokered a multimillion-dollar deal with former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social and walked away with a finders’ fee valued at $155 million. —Bypaolo Confino, Fortune, 18 Oct. 2024

Berri, a close ally of Hezbollah, has been seen as the main interlocutor between the militant group and the United States, and has been trying to broker a cease-fire since fighting began a year ago. —Bassem Mroue and Tia Goldenberg, Los Angeles Times, 8 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English brocour, bragger "broker, middleman," borrowed from Anglo-French abrocour, brocour, broggour (British Medieval Latin abrocātor, brocātor, broggātor), of uncertain origin

Note: The hypothesis in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), first edition, that Middle English and Anglo-French brocour originally referred to a person broaching a cask, does not appear to be supportable. The word broc in "celui qui vend le vin au broc" ("one who sells wine by means of a broc"), the gloss of brocheor in Godefroy's Lexique de l'ancien français, refers to a pitcher (the conventional meaning of this word in modern French), not the tap on a cask. Godefroy's source for this noun is in any case unknown. Old French brochier means "to place on a spit (broche)," not "tap a cask." The noun broche is attested in Old French in the sense "wooden peg used to stop the hole made in a cask," hence "wooden tap" (robinet de bois), and in modern Walloon dialect mèt à broke means "to tap a cask" (compare mettre a broche "to tap a cask" in Anglo-French), but there is no corresponding verb or agent noun in medieval French. On the other hand, abrokur, brokur "broker, middleman" is well-attested in Anglo-French from ca. 1300 and Medieval Latin brocator, broggator, brocarius, brocagium, etc., from the late thirteenth century, with no allusion to opening wine barrels. The source of this noun is unclear, though its locus is England rather than the Continent. Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (vol. 15/1, p. 291) notes Liège dialect a broke "by retail (sale)" (from 1377) and abroquer "broker" in a thirteenth-century document from St. Omer in Artois, and concludes that Middle Dutch brocke "piece broken off (something larger)" is the etymon behind these words, but the English evidence is not touched on. The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology departs from the OED, adducing Old Occitan abrocador "broker" (also abrocadra, abrochador), attested from 1336 in Bordeaux, which the Dictionnaire de l'Occitan Médiéval regards as a vernacularization of the Latin word. (Bordeaux can be readily linked to England at that time on both commercial and political fronts.) Further adduced as a source is Spanish alboroque "refreshment taken on the conclusion of a transaction," presumably of Semitic origin (see Federico Corriente, Dictionary of Arabic and Allied Loanwords: Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician and Kindred Dialects (Brill, 2008), pp. 60-61).

Verb

derivative of broker entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1638, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing broker

• honest broker
• insurance broker
• power broker

Kids Definition

broker

noun

bro·​ker ˈbrō-kər 

: a person who acts as an agent in the purchase and sale of property

Legal Definition

broker

noun

bro·​ker ˈbrō-kər 

: an agent who negotiates contracts of sale (as of real estate or securities) or other agreements (as insurance contracts or mortgages) between the parties for a fee or commission compare dealer, finder

Note: An insurance broker differs from an insurance agent in that a broker is usually considered an agent of the insured, even though he or she may receive a commission from an insurance company. A broker may sell the products of a number of insurers, and an insurer has no liability for a broker's wrongful actions. A securities broker often acts also as a dealer and so is often referred to as a broker-dealer.