Economic parasite; he buys something from its source and sells it to you for more than he paid for it. You pay for the convenience of not having to go to the source.

Often instead of selling to you, he sells to another middleman, who then marks up the price a bit more and sells it either to you or to another middleman, who marks up the price then sells it to you.

Note that there is a lot of marking up going on here.

Mid"dle*man (?), n.; pl. Middlemen ().

1.

An agent between two parties; a broker; a go-between; any dealer between the producer and the consumer; in Ireland, one who takes land of the proprietors in large tracts, and then rents it out in small portions to the peasantry.

2.

A person of intermediate rank; a commoner.

3. Mil.

The man who occupies a central position in a file of soldiers.

 

© Webster 1913.