WordNet Dictionary- [n] a notable achievement; "he performed a great deed"; "the book was her finest effort"
- [v] use or manipulate to one's advantage; "He exploit the new taxation system"; "She knows how to work the system"; "he works his parents for sympathy"
- [v] draw from; make good use of (resources)
- [v] work excessively hard
Webster's 1913 Dictionary\Ex*ploit"\, n. [OE. esploit success, OF. esploit,
espleit,revenue, product, vigor, force, exploit, F. exploit
exploit, fr. L. explicitum, prop. p. p. neut. of explicare to
unfold, display, exhibit; ex + plicare to fold. See {Ply},
and cf. {Explicit}, {Explicate}.]
1. A deed or act; especially, a heroic act; a deed of renown;
an adventurous or noble achievement; as, the exploits of
Alexander the Great.
Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises. --Shak.
2. Combat; war. [Obs.]
He made haste to exploit some warlike service.
--Holland.
2. [F. exploiter.] To utilize; to make available; to get the
value or usefulness out of; as, to exploit a mine or
agricultural lands; to exploit public opinion. [Recent]
3. Hence: To draw an illegitimate profit from; to speculate
on; to put upon. [Recent]
In no sense whatever does a man who accumulates a
fortune by legitimate industry exploit his
employ['e]s or make his capital ``out of'' anybody
else. --W. G.
Sumner.
Computing DictionaryA security hole or an instance of taking advantage of a security hole.
"[...] hackers say exploit. sysadmins say hole" -- mike emke
Emke reports that the stress is on the second syllable. If this is true, this may be a case of hackerly zero-deriving verbs (especially instantials) from nouns, akin to "write" as a noun to describe an instance of a disk drive writing to a disk.
Thesaurus Terms