[f. as prec. + -ER1.] One who exploits. a. One who turns to account. b. One who turns to account for selfish purposes.
a. 1870. Nation (N.Y.), 10 March, X. 152/2. Happy mining company…. These fortunate exploiters.
1890. Montreal Weekly Gaz., 11 Sept., 4/2. The coal seam opened lay on the north side of Cow Bay, and a considerable trade was carried on between the French exploiters, and not only the West Indies but often hostile New England.
b. 1870. Nation (N.Y.), 17 Feb., X. 101/2. The pockets of all the railroad exploiters … have … been crammed with public money.
1883. Athenæum, 24 Feb., 245/1. That shrewd and often not ungentle character whom his ‘exploiters’ malign as Hodge.
1887. T. Kirkup, Inq. Socialism, iii. 86. The capitalists and exploiters of the new industrial era have had laid at their feet the spoils of a world vastly richer and more extensive than that of Rome.
