speculants

Noun

speculant (plural speculants)

1. A speculator; one who makes speculative (high-risk) investments.
   • They moreover also belonged to those securities which speculants neglected at the beginning, which is perhaps sufficiently explained by the position of the rubber market and by the rubber price.1935, Monthly Review, page 306
2. A profiteer or illegal trader.
   • In this way the danger threatening the population from unscrupulous speculants was averted and the prices were kept down.1915 September, “The Situation in Palestine”, in The Maccabæan: A Magazine of Jewish Life and Letters, volume 27, number 3, page 78
3. One who thinks about speculative subjects; one who dreams, extrapolates, or conjectures.
   • To shew that the plan is not the vague dream of a speculant, Mr. Jones sent full-sized patterns pinned on a sheet of paper cut exactly to the length and width of material stated.1882 January 11, T. Jones, “Economy in Cutting”, in The Weekly record of fashion, volume 7, number 316, page 9

See all 4 meanings of speculant