Other forms: middlemen
A middleman is a trader who buys from the maker and sells on. Cut out the middleman, a middleman's margin, act as middleman.
Cutting out the middleman is the standing promise of every direct seller, and it sometimes works and sometimes just moves the same costs elsewhere. The role is often real work: sorting, financing, storing and taking the risk that nothing sells.
1nounmiddlemanA trader who buys from the maker and sells on.
“The middleman buys the coffee from farmers and sells it to shops at twice the price.”
middleman is a trader.
Middle plus man, recorded from Middle English.
Middle English
myddil man
English, today
middleman
From Middle English myddil man, equivalent to middle + man.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA