ill-gotten gains
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The days when dictators could live in gilded exile with fortunes in secret Swiss bank accounts are mostly over, primarily because of global mechanisms for adjudicating human-rights abuses and tracking ill-gotten gains.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 26, 2025
Such ill-gotten gains should not survive a brush with the Constitution.
From Slate • Nov. 18, 2025
Roussev was ordered to pay a confiscation order of £180,768 in ill-gotten gains by August 2025.
From BBC • May 12, 2025
Federal prosecutors and securities regulators in Los Angeles announced charges Friday against prominent short-seller Andrew Left, alleging he made millions of dollars of ill-gotten gains.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 6, 2025
Didn’t scoundrels usually have ill-gotten gains lying around somewhere?
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
