free rider

free rider (plural free riders)

1. Someone who obtains goods or services legally without paying.

   The store failed because all of the manager's friends were free riders who drove paying customers away.

2. (economics) One who obtains benefit from a public good without paying for it directly.

   A lighthouse is the classic example of a public good because it is difficult to prevent a ship (a free rider) from using it.

• (who obtains goods or services for free): freeloader; See also Thesaurus:scrounger

• free-rider problem

• free ride

• let George do it
• public good
• stowaway
• tragedy of the commons

• free rider in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• free rider at OneLook Dictionary Search