bilked

past tense of bilk

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of bilked In 2025, romance scammers bilked ordinary men and women out of over a billion dollars using a variety of crooked tactics. — K. Thor Jensen, PC Magazine, 28 Sep. 2026 Rimes is accused of of stealing $17,000 from a Daytona Beach resident and Heard allegedly bilked a victim out of $9,300. — Dan Raby, CBS News, 28 Sep. 2026 Jason Cloth, a film producer with dozens of credits including Joker, Longlegs and Babylon, is facing numerous federal fraud charges and decades in prison in connection with a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors of more than $100 million. — Erik Pedersen, Deadline, 29 July 2026 Federal prosecutors allege Eidleh was the mastermind who bilked taxpayers out of $250 million by exploiting federal child nutrition programs meant to feed vulnerable children. — Louis Casiano, FOXNews.com, 16 July 2026 The Justice Department said that the disgraced former executive bilked the museum out of the money by altering invoices and approving transactions for personal purchases. — News Desk, Artforum, 14 July 2026 Lawmakers have griped for decades that defense contractors have bilked the federal government on lucrative projects that run over budget and over schedule. — Garrett Downs, CNBC, 14 July 2026 Multiple scams over the course of three days bilked Washington state residents out of more than $670,000, according to a Facebook post from the local sheriff’s office. — Drew Pittock, USA Today, 5 July 2026 Twenty-one people are facing charges as part of a massive hospice fraud scheme that prosecutors say bilked California’s medical system out of $267 million. — Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times, 9 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bilked
Verb
  • Scarlett Johansson sued you over that, alleging that Disney cheated her out of box office upside.
    — Todd Spangler, Variety, 28 Sep. 2026
  • OpenAI revealed that the Hugging Face hack wasn't the only time its bots had lied, cheated, and hidden its tracks from humans.
    — David Pogue, CBS News, 27 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • In fact, all four songs sound like they were plucked from previous albums like Midnights or The Tortured Poets Department.
    — Maya Georgi, Rolling Stone, 28 Sep. 2026
  • Paired with a prominent pink lip and punctuating updo, the glam appeared as if it were plucked from an early 2000s look book.
    — Kaleigh Werner, Footwear News, 24 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • Quickly, the house lights come up, and Lay and family are hustled backstage to get reacquainted.
    — Joan Kron, Allure, 28 Sep. 2026
  • Her mother hustled her to hospital, only for the doctors to realize Accurso’s active imagination had left her in the same predicament as Madeline’s friends.
    — CT Jones, Rolling Stone, 15 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • As solitary insects with limited aggression towards humans, the risk of getting stung is often not worth your direct interference.
    — Sean Donnelly, USA Today, 17 Sep. 2026
  • Two years is a long time in the NFL, yet that wild-card loss to the Philadelphia Eagles still stung in the building.
    — Kevin Fishbain, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • So they're getting pushed really, really, really hard, getting squeezed.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 27 Sep. 2026
  • The combination of tariffs, material prices and currencies have squeezed margins for Swiss watchmakers.
    — Robert Frank, CNBC, 26 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • Even more alarming, DOJ says more than 12,000 people were defrauded by that single scheme more than 20 times each.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 24 Sep. 2026
  • Undeterred by scrutiny from the FEC, Kao defrauded the COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program newly passed by Congress.
    — William Turton, ProPublica, 22 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • Sometimes a lid isn’t screwed tightly, and your foundation proves its worth all over the inside of your bag.
    — Carin Ryan, Travel + Leisure, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Like her, Americans are also so tired of being screwed by an administration that’s not only grossly incompetent and cruel but corrupt as well.
    — Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 6 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • At one point, Fred was swindled out of upward of $15,000 when someone pretended to be the owner of a house for sale that Fred wanted to buy.
    — Megan Rose, ProPublica, 9 Sep. 2026
  • Holdo swindled 32 victims out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for Rolex watches that never existed, authorities said.
    — City News Service, Oc Register, 2 Sep. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Bilked.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bilked. Accessed 2 Oct. 2026.

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