as in exploited
to take unfair advantage of
unscrupulous people trying to milk the welfare system for all it's worth
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Recent Examples of milked
Monster has, itself, been the target of criticism from people like the Menendezes and the families of Dahmer’s victims, who feel their traumas have been milked for sensation rather than sublimated into high art.
—
Judy Berman, Time, 6 Oct. 2025
That’s when cows need to be milked next; if no one’s there, a cow could start to leak milk, to develop an infection.
—Emma Hinchliffe, Fortune, 3 Oct. 2025
Host Jimmy Kimmel milked the moment, delaying confirming that their answer was correct for a very tense minute.
—Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 26 Sep. 2025
Games don’t feel milked, overanalyzed, or — as can often be the case with Generation Kickstarter — overtly romanticized.
—Matt Gardner, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2025
For a while, the Klussendorfs milked their cows on a neighboring farm that had been empty for years.
—Rick Barrett, jsonline.com, 11 Aug. 2025
But strangely, when the researchers milked the well cows with contaminated equipment—the way the virus was assumed to be spreading on farms—the healthy cows did not fall ill.
—Stephanie Pappas, Scientific American, 5 Aug. 2025
Judy Berman, Time, 6 Oct. 2025
That’s when cows need to be milked next; if no one’s there, a cow could start to leak milk, to develop an infection.
—Emma Hinchliffe, Fortune, 3 Oct. 2025
Host Jimmy Kimmel milked the moment, delaying confirming that their answer was correct for a very tense minute.
—Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 26 Sep. 2025
Games don’t feel milked, overanalyzed, or — as can often be the case with Generation Kickstarter — overtly romanticized.
—Matt Gardner, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2025
For a while, the Klussendorfs milked their cows on a neighboring farm that had been empty for years.
—Rick Barrett, jsonline.com, 11 Aug. 2025
But strangely, when the researchers milked the well cows with contaminated equipment—the way the virus was assumed to be spreading on farms—the healthy cows did not fall ill.
—Stephanie Pappas, Scientific American, 5 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for milked
Verb
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Barcelona used a mix of zonal and man-marking but struggled when teams exploited their comparalative lack of height and physicality by using players in motion.—
Anantaajith Raghuraman,
New York Times,
25 Oct. 2025
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Inter-agent trust — the tendency for an AI agent to trust other AI agents by default — can also be exploited to get around the guardrails built into popular systems.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
24 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The mice will be used in experiments on reproduction in low Earth orbit.—
Reuters,
CNN Money,
1 Nov. 2025
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Rare earths are something that China used some years ago in a spat with Japan.—
Kerry Brown,
Time,
31 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The former president has bristled at the suggestion that his administration abused the autopen, defending himself in a July 13 New York Times interview.—
Kathryn Palmer,
USA Today,
28 Oct. 2025
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The lax rules are being abused by people using services like Suno and Udio, where anyone can make an AI song that attempts to mimic a real artist in a matter of seconds.—
Bobby Allyn,
NPR,
27 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The document reinforces that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) is not a tariff statute—nor did Congress intend of provide for it to be leveraged as such.—
Kate Nishimura,
Sourcing Journal,
28 Oct. 2025
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The Icon Award recognizes individuals in entertainment who have leveraged their platforms as a force for good, inspiring the public to support young people facing poverty through their actions.—
Matt Grobar,
Deadline,
28 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Paper co-author Stephanie Rutter of La Trobe emphasized in a statement that the findings highlight the importance of cell-to-cell communication to maintain health—and how these processes can be manipulated by viruses.—
Hannah Millington,
MSNBC Newsweek,
27 Oct. 2025
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Speaking on Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast with hosts Diane Brady and Kristin Stoller, Weeks revealed how Jobs manipulated him into taking on what seemed like an impossible task.—
Dave Smith,
Fortune,
23 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Milked.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/milked. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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