Definition of "third party" [third party]

• A political party organized as opposition to the existing parties in a two-party system. (noun)
• One other than the principals involved in a transaction: I pay rent to a third party, not directly to the landlord. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In economics, the third party is the consumer; and thus it is clear how the road toward cartellization is taken."
• "In these days of stringent criteria for admission and continued stays including extensive utilization reviews, third party payor, pre-certification of admissions, and rigorous managed-care patient audit, there is virtually no chance that a person would be admitted to treatment … in the absence of a significant prior history of drug or alcohol problems."
• "If he asked him to go if Stella became too emo­tional, or told him things that perhaps a third party shouldn't know, why, Roscoe would leave right away."