customer

nouncommon in dialogue

United Kingdom//ˈkʌs.tə.mə//
Australia//ˈkɐs.tə.mə//
//ˈkʌs.tə.mɚ//

A person or company who purchases or receives a product or service from a business or merchant or intends to do so.

noun

1
obsoleteA habitual patron, regular purchaser, returning client; a person or company who has a custom of buying from a particular business.
2
A person or company who purchases or receives a product or service from a business or merchant or intends to do so.
Every person who passes by is a potential customer.
Airlines are the chief customers of the commercial divisions of large-aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus, Boeing, and Embraer.
3
informalA person, especially one engaging in some sort of interaction with others.
a cool customer, a tough customer, an ugly customer
Pug could just see Slote's pale face under his fur hat. "I don't agree with you on that. He's a pretty tough customer, Hopkins."
This switch led to Philip Hammond becoming the Transport Secretary and he quickly proved to be a tricky customer, asking questions about rail spending and reining it back whenever possible.
4
historicalA native official who exacted customs duties.
His houses […] are seized on by the Customer.
The Customer should come and visit them.
The several affronts, insolences, and abuses dayly put upon us by Boolchund, our chief Customer

Etymology

From Middle English custumer, from Old French coustumier, costumier (compare modern French coutumier), from Medieval Latin custumarius (“a toll-gatherer, tax-collector”, noun), from custumarius (“pertaining to custom or customs”, adjective), from custuma (“custom, tax”). More at custom. By surface analysis, custom + -er.

Forms

plural: customers

custody · The legal right to take care of something or somebody,…custom · Frequent repetition of the same behavior; way of behavior…customary · In accordance with, or established by, custom or common usage.

customer · A person or company who purchases or receives a product or service from a business or merchant or intends to do so.

customs · The duties or taxes imposed on imported or exported goods.cut · To incise, to cut into the surface of something. To perform…cute · Possessing physical features, behaviors, personality traits…

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.