exploit

1 of 2

noun

ex·​ploit ˈek-ˌsplȯit  ik-ˈsplȯit 

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 exploits …

—Sir 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

ex·​ploit ik-ˈsplȯit  ˈek-ˌsplȯit 

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

ik-ˌsploi-tə-ˈbi-lə-tē 

noun

exploitable

ik-ˈsplȯi-tə-bəl 

adjective

exploiter noun

Synonyms

Noun

• deed
• feat
• number
• stunt
• tour de force
• trick

Verb

• abuse
• capitalize (on)
• cash in (on)
• impose (on or upon)
• leverage
• milk
• pimp
• play (on or upon)
• use
• work

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

Names were called out for each veteran and their unit before their remains were brought forward and stories were shared about their exploits. —CBS News, 5 Nov. 2024

Hatcher’s exploits in Southeast Asia in the eighties and nineties are now held up by conservationists as case studies of cultural theft and the careless destruction of historical sites. —Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2024

Verb

Scientists are also trying to exploit the fungus’s sensitivity to temperature by building Bd-free habitats or moving frogs to locales where the fungus can’t survive. —Martin J. Kernan, Discover Magazine, 16 Nov. 2024

Still, just last year, Chinese hackers exploited Microsoft security lapses to breach the email accounts of senior U.S. officials. —Renee Dudley, ProPublica, 15 Nov. 2024

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

1838, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Kids Definition

exploit

1 of 2 noun

ex·​ploit ˈek-ˌsplȯit  ik-ˈsplȯit 

: a brave or daring act

exploit

2 of 2 verb

ex·​ploit ik-ˈsplȯit  ˈek-ˌsplȯit 

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

-ə-bəl 

adjective

exploitation

ˌek-ˌsplȯi-ˈtā-shən

noun

exploiter

ik-ˈsplȯit-ər

ˈek-ˌsplȯit-

noun