ex·ploit

(ĕk′sploit′, ĭk-sploit′)

1. An act or deed, especially a brilliant or heroic one. See Synonyms at feat¹.

2. Computers A program or system designed to take advantage of a particular error or security vulnerability in computers or networks.

tr.v. (ĭk-sploit′, ĕk′sploit′) ex·ploit·ed, ex·ploit·ing, ex·ploits

1. To employ to the greatest possible advantage: exploit one's talents.

2. To make use of selfishly or unethically: a corporation that exploited peasant labor.

[Middle English, from Old French esploit, from Latin explicitum, neuter past participle of explicāre, to unfold; see explicate.]

ex·ploit′a·bil′i·ty n.

ex·ploit′a·ble adj.

ex·ploit′a·tive, ex·ploit′ive adj.

ex·ploit′a·tive·ly, ex·ploit′ive·ly adv.

ex·ploit′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

exploiter

(ɪkˈsplɔɪtə)

1. censorious a person who exploits other people in an unfair and cruel way

2. (Commerce) a person who develops resources or raw materials so that they can be used for industry or commercial activities

3. a person who makes the best use of an opportunity

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

exploiter - a person who uses something or someone selfishly or unethically

user

selfish person - a person who is unusually selfish

Translations

exploiteur

exploiter

[eksˈplɔɪtəʳ] N → explotador(a) m/f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

exploiter

[ɪkˈsplɔɪtə^r] n

(pejorative) [person] → exploiteur m

[resource, opportunity] → exploiteur m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

exploiter

n (lit, fig) → Ausbeuter(in) m(f)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

exploiter

[ɛksˈplɔɪtəʳ] n → sfruttatore/trice
they were the first exploiters of Lebanon timber → furono i primi a sfruttare il legname del Libano

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

He had, in fact, spoken contemptuously of the monumental tradesman as an "exploiter" of labor, and had asked a young working mason, a member of the International Association, to design a monument for the gratification of Jansenius.

View in context

That was "competition," so far as it concerned the wage-earner, the man who had only his labor to sell; to those on top, the exploiters, it appeared very differently, of course--there were few of them, and they could combine and dominate, and their power would be unbreakable.

View in context

But outside of such group-combinations of exploiters, he refused to bind himself to any man's game.

View in context

The exploiter of the CICL would not be prosecuted for the abuse because the CICL could not testify against their coaccused while in a diversion program or reformation.

How about 'age of legal accountability'?

Just forgetting that it was a utility agency and not a commercial or profit making exploiter.

Cruel-K Electric again playing loadshedding drama - Prime Minister's so-called efforts prove to be futile - K Electric should be handed over to consortium of stakeholders

Sotkamo Silver AB (HEL:SOSI1), an exploiter of mineral deposits in the Nordic countries, announced on Thursday an agreement with the local construction company RPK Rakennus Kemppainen Oy, about the construction of the foundation of the concentrator plant and related civil works for the Silver Mine project.

Sotkamo Silver signs agreement for the construction of the foundations of the concentrator plant and related civil works

In BRUCE CONNER: IT'S ALL TRUE (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art/University of California Press, $75), the artist embodies a one-man San Francisco scene: beatnik partyer, political prankster, punk thrasher, spelunker of the inner cosmos, and, when it suited him, canny exploiter of art institutions.

In Bruce Conner: It's All True

C'est dans ce contexte que pres de 10 stations de detection de l'apparition et de la propagation des acariens des palmiers ont ete installees, dans les differentes oasis, et des echantillons ont ete preleves pour analyse, en vue de les exploiter pour annoncer la date du demarrage des soins.

Tozeur : Une serie de mesures garantissant la protection des palmiers contre les maladies et la contrebande

Khartoum, 17 Juin 2014 (SUNA)- L'Assemblee nationale a demande a la soudanisation totale du secteur du petrole et que le partenariat etranger doit etre pour la necessite extreme tout en appelant a promouvoir l'environnement du travail.Le rapport du comite de l'energie approuve par l'Assemble nationale Mardi sur la performance du ministere du Petrole pour l'an 2013 a recommande l'importance de bien exploiter le petrole, le comite a de meme appele a la conjugaison des efforts pour depasser les defis et d'oeuvrer pour accroitre la production en vue de soutenir l'economie nationale.Fin Osman/Seif

Le parlement demande a la soudanisation totale du secteur du petrole

Apres la multiplication des notifications, des informations et des indices sur l'exploitation des enfants dans les manifestations, il a ete prouve que la plupart de ces enfants sont des orphelins que les manifestants avaient retires des associations caritatives pour les exploiter a des fins politiques.

Efforts pour ne pas exploiter les orphelins dans les manifs

Bufacchi suggests that theories of exploitation typically focus on the structure of the relations among the people involved, but argues that we should reconceive exploitation in terms of the "motives" of the exploiter. (It is not clear to me whether he intends to expand the concept of exploitation by defining a new, motivation-based kind of exploitation or by arguing that motivation necessarily involves some particular sort of motivation.) On his view, exploitation differs from the mere use of another in that "When we exploit someone, we use them in a particular way which degrades or humiliates them" (49).

Vittorio Bufacchi: Social Injustice