strip-mine

plural strip-mines

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of strip mine.

present singular third person strip-mines · participle present strip-mining · participle past strip-mined · past strip-mined

1. To mine by creating a strip mine, usually for coal or tar sands.

   The decision to strip-mine was opposed by environmentalists.

   1 more example

   Since 1945, approximately 4 million acres of land have been strip-mined, of which only 2 million have been revegetated.

   1980, United States. Science and Education Administration. Cooperative Research, Minisite preparation for reforestation of strip-mined lands, Industrial Environmental Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, page 5

2. figurativelyTo use up all the resources of something.

   This is what success looks like in the creator economy: A group of friends becomes a cast of characters, strip-mines lives and relationships for content and, in the process, turns into a corporation, with payroll to process and liabilities to consider.

   2022 October 25, Willy Staley, “The Try Guys and the Prison of Online Fame”, in The New York Times Magazine