customer(n = noun.person) client - someone who pays for goods or services;
is a kind of consumer
is a member of business relation
has particulars: buyer, emptor, purchaser, vendee, guest, frequenter, patron, policyholder, shopper, disburser, expender, spender, reader, subscriber, taker, warrantee, john, trick, whoremaster, whoremonger
1. One who collect customs; a toll gatherer. [1913 Webster]
"The customers of the small or petty custom and of the subsidy do demand of them custom for kersey cloths." [1913 Webster]
2. One who regularly or repeatedly makes purchases of a trader; a purchaser; a buyer. [1913 Webster]
"He has got at last the character of a good customer; by this means he gets credit for something considerable, and then never pays for it." [1913 Webster]
3. A person with whom a business house has dealings; as, the customers of a bank. J. A. H. Murray. [1913 Webster]
4. A peculiar person; -- in an indefinite sense; as, a queer customer; an ugly customer. Dickens. [1913 Webster]
5. A lewd woman. Shak. [1913 Webster]
customer, n.
1 a person who buys goods or services from a shop or business.
2 a person one has to deal with (an awkward customer).
Etymology:
ME f. AF custumer (as CUSTOMARY), or f. CUSTOM + -ER(1)
N purchase, emption, buying, purchasing, shopping, preemption, refusal, coemption, bribery, slave trade, buyer, purchaser, emptor, vendee, patron, employer, client, customer, clientele, purchased, caveat emptor, the customer is always right.