Definition of "veteran"

Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. […] Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet ambitious growth targets. That model is still prevalent today.

2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70

The label has often collaborated with other designers, like Australian shoemaker Teva and American woolwear veteran Pendleton.

2018 April 1, Cristian Bonetto, Lonely Planet Pocket Copenhagen‎, page 81

The insinuating eloquence and delicate flattery of veteran diplomatists and courtiers.

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 4, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans

Nothing could be more business-like than the construction of the stout dams, and nothing more gently rural than the limpid lakes, with the grand old forest trees marshalled round their margins like a veteran army that had marched down to drink, only to be stricken motionless at the water’s edge.

1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎

“That was in Casco,” his wife contradicted immediately. She spoke in the unmistakable tones of a veteran contradictor.

1980, Stephen King, The Mist