exploitation

[ ek-sploi-tey-shuhn ]

noun

1. use or utilization, especially for profit:

   the exploitation of newly discovered oil fields.

2. selfish utilization:

   He got ahead through the exploitation of his friends.

3. the combined, often varied, use of public-relations and advertising techniques to promote a person, movie, product, etc.

Other Words From

• ex·ploi·ta·tion·al adjective
• ex·ploi·ta·tion·al·ly adverb
• non·ex·ploi·ta·tion noun
• o·ver·ex·ploi·ta·tion noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of exploitation¹

From French, dating back to 1795–1805; exploit ², -ation

Example Sentences

Exploitation of trafficking victims may be most acute in conflict and adjoining regions, but it is not confined to these areas.

From The Daily Beast

And far from being secondary partners, Scots featured disproportionately in overseas imperial exploitation.

From The Daily Beast

She is rootless and stateless, having little in the way of rights or protection from exploitation.

From The Daily Beast

Syrian women and girls are facing increased danger from sexual exploitation in the very refugee camps where they sought safety.

From The Daily Beast

They were equally amazed to learn that Ed Piskor was white, but not a word was said about cultural exploitation or appropriation.

From The Daily Beast

For, of course, as capital heaped up and its control became concentrated, the ratio of exploitation increased.

From Project Gutenberg

The opinion was offered that they represented the exploitation of some new brand of whisky which would announce itself later.

From Project Gutenberg

Yet on the medical profession rests the responsibility for the exploitation of this nostrum.

From Project Gutenberg

Evidently this method of exploitation pays; that it does pay is a disgrace to the medical profession.

From Project Gutenberg

It should not be difficult for the physician to fix the status of iridium under this sort of exploitation.

From Project Gutenberg