exploit

1 of 2

noun

plural exploits
: deed, act
especially : a notable, memorable, or heroic act
a daring exploit
a book about his youthful exploits
I took out the list of Professor Challenger's exploits, and I read it over under the electric lamp. Arthur Conan Doyle
About midnight the gang returned, with various articles of plunder, and talked over their exploitsSir Walter Scott
It used to be rare for C.I.A. employees to recount their exploits, or grievances, in print. Alex Berenson

exploit

2 of 2

verb

exploited; exploiting; exploits

transitive verb

1
: to make productive use of : utilize
exploiting your talents
exploit your opponent's weakness
2
: to make use of meanly or unfairly for one's own advantage
exploiting migrant farm workers
exploitability noun
exploitable adjective
exploiter noun
Choose the Right Synonym for exploit

feat, exploit, achievement mean a remarkable deed.

feat implies strength or dexterity or daring.

an acrobatic feat

exploit suggests an adventurous or heroic act.

his exploits as a spy

achievement implies hard-won success in the face of difficulty or opposition.

her achievements as a chemist

Examples of exploit in a Sentence

Noun the fanciful exploits of the giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan once famed as an actor, John Wilkes Booth is now remembered for a single exploit, his assassination of Lincoln Verb He has never fully exploited his talents. Top athletes are able to exploit their opponents' weaknesses. She said the tragedy had been exploited by the media.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Eventually, Don Giovanni is forced to pay for his exploits in dramatic fashion, but not before some of the most famous arias, duets and ensembles in the opera canon are performed. Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Jan. 2024 The show, which followed the exploits of Adams’ character Mike Ross who manages to talk his way into a job as a lawyer despite having never attended law school, aired from June 2011 to September 2019. Kelsie Gibson, Peoplemag, 29 Feb. 2024 There’s no shortage of shearling in Masters of the Air, the epic new Apple TV+ series that follows the exploits of the U.S. Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group, known as the Bloody Hundredth, during WWII. Eric Twardzik, Robb Report, 21 Feb. 2024 The award-winning series follows the exploits of various guests and employees at an exclusive White Lotus resort. Partner Content, Variety, 12 Feb. 2024 That crash left her, in her 50s, with 16 screws in her left leg, the kind of traumatic injury that finishes the exploits of pro kickers and Olympic skiers. Peter Marks, Washington Post, 31 Jan. 2024 This coming-of-age comedy follows the exploits of 15-year-old Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), who deals with the emotional fallout of her father’s death while juggling school, a complicated relationship with her mother, and an obsessive crush on a classmate. Andrew Walsh, EW.com, 30 Jan. 2024 Yet as impressive as Ingenuity's exploits were over the last three years, and though its carbon fiber blades will spin no more, its work has only just begun. Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 29 Jan. 2024 Her novels are actually hazy memories of her spy exploits. Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 13 Feb. 2024
Verb
Women are the first to be exploited, attacked, and abused online in the most invasive ways possible–and with AI, the threat changes every day. Christian F. Nunes, Fortune, 15 Mar. 2024 Lawmakers have long sought to place restrictions on TikTok, accusing the app and its parent company ByteDance of exploiting American user data on behalf of the Chinese government. Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 14 Mar. 2024 Professor Yeh points out that the concepts behind the stories might have the potential to be exploited by other countries and regions for remakes. Faye Bradley, Variety, 13 Mar. 2024 Thirty thousand organizations’ email servers were hacked in 2021 due to a Microsoft Exchange Server flaw, and Chinese hackers breached US government emails via a Microsoft cloud exploit last year. Tom Warren, The Verge, 13 Mar. 2024 While there are tight controls around patient records, Gounder says there are potential loopholes hackers could exploit. Sara Moniuszko, CBS News, 12 Mar. 2024 Many Democrats condemned the bill, calling it a political maneuver that exploited a tragedy while doing nothing to address the situation at the border. Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 8 Mar. 2024 So those are some of the basic challenges of exploiting the terahertz regime. IEEE Spectrum, 7 Mar. 2024 The Los Angeles Police Department wants the public to know that their home security systems may have a weak spot that tech-savvy burglars are starting to exploit. Nathan Solis, Los Angeles Times, 6 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'exploit.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English espleit, expleit, esploit, exploit "furtherance, favorable outcome, outcome (good or bad), undertaking, military expedition, deed of arms," borrowed from Anglo-French espleit, esploit, exploit "carrying out, execution, achievement, course, success, gain," probably noun derivative of espleiter, esploiter "to carry out, achieve, expedite" — more at exploit entry 2

Verb

Middle English espleiten, expleiten, expleten, esploiten "to facilitate, expedite (a journey), fulfill (a need), execute, complete, relate, explain," borrowed from Anglo-French espleiter, esploiter, exploiter "to carry out, achieve, promote, expedite, make use of, use unfairly, progress, succeed, act," probably going back to Vulgar Latin *explicitāre, repetitive derivative of Latin explicāre "to free from folds or creases, unroll, disentangle, spread out, bring into play, exercise" — more at explicate

Note: The Middle English form expleten suggests association with Latin explēre "to fill up, carry to completion, accomplish" (compare expletive entry 2). Latinizing variants with ex- have completely replaced earlier es- in both English and French. Earlier standard etymological dictionaries of French (Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bloch and Wartburg's Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française) see the noun as the more basic form, going back to *explicitum, allegedly formed from the neuter of the Latin past participle explicitus (see explicit)—though the sense of the noun is active, not passive. Romance outcomes of *explicitāre are mainly restricted to Gallo-Romance (as Old Occitan esplechar "to make use of, execute, accomplish") and Catalan (esplet "harvest," espletar "to harvest"). Note that *explicitāre preserves only the figurative meaning "bring into play, exercise" of the root word explicāre, out of which French and English have elaborated further meanings. The sense "relate, explain" of the Middle English verb is not paralleled in French and did not survive into Modern English.

First Known Use

Noun

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1795, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of exploit was in the 15th century

Dictionary Entries Near exploit

Cite this Entry

“Exploit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exploit. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

exploit

1 of 2 noun
: a brave or daring act

exploit

2 of 2 verb
1
: to get value or use from
exploit your talents
exploit an opponent's weaknesses
2
: to make use of unfairly for one's own advantage
exploiting migrant farm workers
exploitable adjective
exploitation
ˌek-ˌsplȯi-ˈtā-shən
noun
exploiter
ik-ˈsplȯit-ər
ˈek-ˌsplȯit-
noun

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