Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An act or deed, especially a brilliant or heroic one. synonym: feat.
- noun Computers A program or system designed to take advantage of a particular error or security vulnerability in computers or networks.
- transitive verb To employ to the greatest possible advantage.
- transitive verb To make use of selfishly or unethically.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Achievement; performance; usually, a deed or act of some exceptional or remarkable kind; a conspicuous performance; more especially, a spirited or heroic act; a great or noble achievement: as, the exploits of Alexander, of Cæsar, of Wellington.
- noun Advantage; benefit.
- noun Synonyms Deed, Feat, etc. See
feat . - To achieve; accomplish.
- To make complete use of; work up; bring into play; utilize; cultivate.
- Specifically To employ or utilize selfishly; turn to one's own advantage without regard to right or justice; make subservient to self-interest.
- To make research or experiment; explore.
- To work (as a mine, etc.); to turn to industrial use.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A deed or act; especially, a heroic act; a deed of renown; an adventurous or noble achievement.
- noun obsolete Combat; war.
- noun Recent To utilize; to make available; to get the value or usefulness out of
- noun Recent Hence: To draw an illegitimate profit from; to speculate on; to put upon.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
heroic or extraordinarydeed . - noun An
achievement . - noun computing A
program or technique that exploits avulnerability in othersoftware . - verb transitive To use for one’s own advantage.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb work excessively hard
- verb use or manipulate to one's advantage
- noun a notable achievement
- verb draw from; make good use of
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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I like the term exploit, Nice, just cannot get the staff, l would not mind a consultant.
Personal Bloggers Wanted Luis von Ahn 2009
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If this energy was provided at an insignificant cost, jobs would flock back to the U.S., thus providing the opportunity for conservatives to once again exploit workers here.
Think Progress » Global warming is a ‘nightmare’ for coffee. 2010
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If this energy was provided at an insignificant cost, jobs would flock back to the U.S., thus providing the opportunity for conservatives to once again exploit workers here.
Think Progress » Global warming is a ‘nightmare’ for coffee. 2010
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This exploit is reportedly easy to duplicate, and experts expect the problem to spread quickly to other shady sites across the Internet.
Zero-Day Internet Explorer exploit found in the wild — Meandering Passage 2006
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¬ This exploit is reportedly easy to duplicate, and experts expect the problem to spread quickly to other shady sites across the Internet.
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Most recently, a cross-domain exploit has been discovered in a large number of sites and again this is something that can be attributed to the rush for new features over the ‘right way’ of doing things.
Suttree » Casual Games, Social Software » 2006 » October 2006
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Most recently, a cross-domain exploit has been discovered in a large number of sites and again this is something that can be attributed to the rush for new features over the ‘right way’ of doing things.
Suttree » Casual Games, Social Software » The Decline and Virtualisation of PHP 2006
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Muddle, confuse and exploit is the mantra of the right.
Think Progress » Rice Suddenly Loses Her Ability To Assess Polls 2005
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I highly disagreed with Microsoft's assessment that this was only a "moderate" threat level to intranet and desktop systems because the exploit is so easy to perform.
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Now, the leet haxors want to sue the company that publishes BugTraq, despite the fact that the exploit is circulating all over the net in the usual places -- irc, gnutella, etc. -- because they're worried that publication of their exploit exposes them to liabiity if it's used to trash a server.
oroboros commented on the word exploit
Contronymic in the sense of a heroic act vs. exploitation (for selfish ends).
January 9, 2007
eggoabbas commented on the word exploit
As a noun this can also refer to a vulnerability discovered in a computer system (or a method of accessing or triggering that vulnerability).
July 9, 2009
1642578687 commented on the word exploit
The other day I was talking to my mom at work and she used this word . Apparentlty one of the workers said that my mom likes to exploit people and not pay them enough.. My momis only the GM so she has no control over pay !
October 25, 2010