Blackmail
['blækmeɪl] or ['blækmel]
Definition
(noun.) extortion of money by threats to divulge discrediting information.
(verb.) obtain through threats.
(verb.) exert pressure on someone through threats.
Checked by Aron--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A certain rate of money, corn, cattle, or other thing, anciently paid, in the north of England and south of Scotland, to certain men who were allied to robbers, or moss troopers, to be by them protected from pillage.
(n.) Payment of money exacted by means of intimidation; also, extortion of money from a person by threats of public accusation, exposure, or censure.
(n.) Black rent, or rent paid in corn, flesh, or the lowest coin, a opposed to "white rent", which paid in silver.
(v. t.) To extort money from by exciting fears of injury other than bodily harm, as injury to reputation, distress of mind, etc.; as, to blackmail a merchant by threatening to expose an alleged fraud.
Checked by Barry
Definition
n. rent or tribute formerly paid to robbers for protection: hush-money extorted under threat of exposure or denunciation esp. of a baseless charge.—v.t. to extort money from a person by this expedient.
Checker: Percy
Examples
- There's blackmail in it, or I am much mistaken. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- I am aware of the contract-grafts, the franchise-steals, the dirty streets, the bribing and the blackmail, the vice-and-crime partnerships, the Big Business alliances of Tammany Hall. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- To begin with, barter, blackmail, tribute, and robbery by violence passed into each other by insensible degrees. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- If ever he blackmailed an innocent person, then indeed we should have him, but he is as cunning as the Evil One. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- He is known to have held papers which he used for blackmailing purposes. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- If this young person should produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is she to prove their authenticity? Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Edited by Dorothy