agent

Word family

Related topics: Business basics, Media, Performing, Government, Police, Chemistry

a·gent /ˈeɪdʒənt/ S3 W3 noun [countableC]

1 BUSINESSBBa person or company that represents another person or company, especially in business 代理人，代理商；经纪人

Our agent in Rio deals with all our Brazilian business.

我们在里约热内卢的业务代表处理我们在巴西的全部业务。

agent for

We’re acting as agents for Mr Watson.

我们是沃森先生的代理人。

→ estate agent , land agent , real estate agent , travel agent

2 AMAPARTIST/ACTORsomeone who finds work for actors, musicians etc, or who finds someone to publish a writer’s work 〔演员、音乐家、作家等的〕经理人，经纪人

My agent has a new script for me to look at.

我的经纪人有一个新剧本要我看。

a literary agent

出版代理人

3 GOVERNMENT AGENTPGSCPsomeone who works for a government or police department, especially in order to get secret information about another country or organization 特工，情报员，间谍

an intelligence agent

情报特工

an FBI agent

联邦调查局探员

an undercover (=secret) agent

密探

→ secret agent , double agent

4 HCCHANGE/MAKE something DIFFERENT technical a chemical or substance that is used for a particular purpose or that has a particular effect 剂

Soap is a cleansing agent.

肥皂是一种清洁剂。

5 FORCECHANGE/MAKE something DIFFERENTsomeone or something that affects or changes a situation 原动力，动因

agent for/of change

Technological advances are the chief agents of change.

技术进步是变革的主要推动力。

→ free agent

Examples from the Corpus

agent• The firm has an agent in Sydney who deals with the Australian side of the business.• Wray was filmed passing money to an enemy agent.• That raises obvious questions about the priorities of federal drug enforcement agents and prosecutors.• Not an estate agent, a valuer, a lawyer or a property slump in sight.• And owners note a perceptible increase in door-hangers, fliers and other pleas from agents to put their homes up for sale.• My meeting with the author and his agent did not go well.• The licence application must be signed by the applicant or his agent.• a book of memoirs written by a retired MI5 agent, Peter Wright• My agents fixed it for me.• My agent sent me to an audition.• She passed on to our agent the name Raphael, though he paid for it with his life.• He had been a secret agent of the enemy all along.• Residents say they understand that agents have an important job, but they accuse the feds of lies, intimidation and harassment.• Number 73 was just a doorway between a travel agent and a small grocery store, with three steps leading up to it.• a travel agent• Travel agents often advertise package tours which include a stay at a certain hotel.• The company is the UK agent for a top Danish furniture maker.

agent for• Watts acts as an agent for the sales department.

literary agent• Quitting after a fracas he had gone to work as a literary agent and had prospered.• I therefore contacted a literary agent, Al Zuckerman, who had been introduced to me as the brother-in-law of a colleague.• John Pawsey describes a week in the life of a literary agent.• Loretta Barrett, our literary agent, was a successful editor at a major publishing company.• Simple start All seemed relatively simple at the start, recalls literary agent Alexandra Cann.• Nina, the literary agent, was on her way to London on business.• I gave the novel to the literary agent Curtis Brown to negotiate with a publisher.• Her family, besieged by calls, retained New York literary agent Laurie Liss.

undercover ... agent• I want to apply to become an undercover agent.• He's an undercover sabotage agent if ever there was one.• The informant showed gun crates marked with the names of Norinco and Poly Technologies to an undercover agent.• In the guise of travelling labourers they were sent to Wokingham Fair as undercover agents.• Today, the state may employ undercover agents who falsely hold them-selves out as persons they are not.• The Fedpol had undercover agents there, naturally, but no official presence.• The national police commissioner, George Fivaz, this week said that undercover agents would be sent in.

agent for/of change• This implies a corresponding commitment by the training institutions to prepare the student to become an agent of change. 6.• In the analysis of change, the various theorists have focused on different agents of change, which are often social classes.• Some other agent of change was needed.• They are the agents of change but departments may not always perceive this role.• Likewise, the agent of change might have been better devised to give more confidence in the outcome.• Such standardization and rationalization of diverse local practices was promoted by lawyers who were the agents of change.

From Longman Business Dictionary

agenta·gent /ˈeɪdʒənt/ noun [countableC]

1COMMERCEJOBa person or company that is paid by another person or company to represent them in business

trading companies who act as agents for manufacturers

→ see also sub-agent , change agent