BUILDER

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does builder mean? 

• BUILDER (noun)
  The noun BUILDER has 3 senses:

1. a substance added to soaps or detergents to increase their cleansing action

2. a person who creates a business or who organizes and develops a country

3. someone who contracts for and supervises construction (as of a building)

  Familiarity information: BUILDER used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BUILDER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A substance added to soaps or detergents to increase their cleansing action

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

builder; detergent builder

Hypernyms ("builder" is a kind of...):

material; stuff (the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "builder"):

sodium pyrophosphate; tetrasodium pyrophosphate (a sodium salt of pyrophosphoric acid used as a builder in soaps and detergents)

sodium tripolyphosphate (a sodium salt of triphosphoric acid used as a builder in soaps and detergents)

tribasic sodium phosphate; trisodium orthophosphate; trisodium phosphate (the tertiary phosphate of sodium used as a builder in soaps and detergents)

Derivation:

build (improve the cleansing action of)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person who creates a business or who organizes and develops a country

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Context example:

empire builder

Hypernyms ("builder" is a kind of...):

creator (a person who grows or makes or invents things)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Someone who contracts for and supervises construction (as of a building)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

builder; constructor

Hypernyms ("builder" is a kind of...):

contractor ((law) a party to a contract)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "builder"):

boatbuilder (a person who builds boats)

contractor (someone (a person or firm) who contracts to build things)

home-builder; homebuilder; house-builder; housebuilder (someone who builds houses as a business)

jerry-builder (someone who builds cheap buildings out of poor materials on speculation for a quick profit)

road builder (someone whose business is to build roads)

ship builder; shipbuilder (a person who builds ships as a business)

Derivation:

build (make by combining materials and parts)

 Context examples 

For example, what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated with the outside air!

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then he go to a builder, and he sell him that house, making an agreement that he pull it down and take all away within a certain time.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Mr. Jonas Oldacre is a well-known resident of that suburb, where he has carried on his business as a builder for many years.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The face of the creature was like the wildest gargoyle that the imagination of a mad medieval builder could have conceived.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I was none too soon; for the boat-builder, with a lantern in his hand, was locking the yard-gate.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I confess that I should be interested to know who this Mr. Cornelius may be with whom a retired builder has such very large transactions.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Ham was a boat-builder in these days, having improved a natural ingenuity in that handicraft, until he had become a skilled workman.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“There’s the advantage of being a builder,” said Holmes, as we came out.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The promise of which my friend has spoken, is made and entered into with her cousin; Christian name, Ham; surname, Peggotty; occupation, boat-builder; also of this town.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Besides the signs of a struggle in the room of the unfortunate builder it is now known that the French windows of his bedroom (which is on the ground floor) were found to be open, that there were marks as if some bulky object had been dragged across to the wood-pile, and, finally, it is asserted that charred remains have been found among the charcoal ashes of the fire.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)