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
  • In taking that gamble, the authors cheated fans and missed an opportunity.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 8 Oct. 2026
  • The simple truth is that no single technology can fully address AI misuse or determine whether a student cheated.
    — Melissa Loble, Forbes.com, 5 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • Some series plucked peripheral movie characters for unnecessary small-screen addendums adventures.
    — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 12 Oct. 2026
  • The original number was 28,800, but Carolina Herrera designer Wes Gordon’s two children plucked a tulip each to take with them.
    — Max Berlinger, Vogue, 7 Oct. 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
  • The loss to Ole Miss three weeks ago stung, but was not unexpected.
    — Austin Perry OutKick, FOXNews.com, 11 Oct. 2026
  • Frazier was a Black sharecropper’s son who’d overcome much hardship, and the insults stung.
    — Britannica Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • Pick it up, however, and there's no mistaking how much battery Bluetti has squeezed inside.
    — Michael Lydick, PC Magazine, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Give members of the business and culture press the excuse to write about the rough economics of linear TV and how late night is particularly squeezed.
    — Josef Adalian, Vulture, 8 Oct. 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
  • To Knight, he has been screwed out of those opportunities thanks to The Bloodline – Reigns’ faction of family members who have had his back through thick and thin.
    — Ryan Gaydos OutKick, FOXNews.com, 10 Oct. 2026
  • Unavoidably the text has been chopped and channeled, with some swapping of parts, bits of narration screwed into dialogue and events described in a paragraph blown out into scenes.
    — Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 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 16 Oct. 2026.

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