bilk

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I like you, because you are no ordinary sneak thief, you are a high-toned, gentlemanly sort of a bilk, and wouldn't take anything you couldn't lift.

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Definitions (22)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. transitive verb To defraud, cheat, or swindle: made millions bilking wealthy clients on art sales.
  2. transitive verb To evade payment of: bilk one's debts.
  3. transitive verb To thwart or frustrate: "Fate . . . may be to a certain extent bilked” (Thomas Carlyle).

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (10)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

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Examples (50)

  • Until recently, defrauders tried to bilk homeowners out of the equity in their homes. —  Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News
  • As it turns out, police in two cities and at least four businesses believe Davis was a con man who preyed on people's trust to bilk them out of thousands of dollars, gain free hotel rooms, and even enjoy a steak dinner on the house. —  News from www.rep-am.com
  • They have saddled everyone of us with a debt of $165,000 for the bail out (so far) and most of that money goes into their pockets in bonuses, guarantees for their failed investments, and other devious ways they bilk people for cash. —  doggdot.us
  • FTC Chairman Jon Liebowitz said the agency is determined to take a tough stand against those who bilk consumers with bogus credit schemes, especially in the current economy. —  GS Newswire
  • First of all, your cable bills will be lower in the short term, but not necessarily in the long term, because you're sitll going to have all the taxes and fees and bullshit, and the cable companies will surely find new ways to bilk us. —  Pajiba
 

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Perhaps alteration of balk.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Origin obscure; apparently slang; by some supposed to be a minced form of balk. Cf. the senses of bilk, n.
  2. See the verb.
 

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/bɪlk/
by American Heritage

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