Prof'l

Noun

professional (plural professionals)

1. A person who belongs to a profession.
2. A white-collar worker, especially one with a specialized, high-earning job such as a doctor or engineer.
   • […]extra income earned this way is normally used for buying consumer goods, such as a cottage, car, boat, and so on, irrespective of whether the recipient is a professional or a tradesman.1987 June 18, Alena Heitlinger, Reproduction, Medicine and the Socialist State, Springer, →ISBN, page 104
3. A person who earns their living from a specified activity.
   • My son, a Canada-based IT professional who often travels to Ukraine, told me about the exhilarating atmosphere on those Ukraine-bound trains, bringing home hundreds of the unwilling refugees, mostly women and children (including the babies, born in exile on the way to meet their Ukrainian fighter...2024 September 4, Vitali Vitaliev, “A salute to Ukraine's 'Second Army'”, in RAIL, number 1017, page 49
4. (euphemistic) A prostitute.
   • There was this nice lady who flirted with me at the bar, but it turned out that she was a professional.
5. A reputation known by name.
6. An expert.
   • I have learned that there is a person attached to a golf club called a professional. Find out who fills that post at the Green Meadow Club; […] invite the professional, urgently, to dine with us this evening.1934, Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance, Bantam, published 1992, →ISBN, page 97

See all 11 meanings of professional