blackmail
102
5.2
- noun
- /ˈblækˌmeɪl/
:
chantaje
- After the scandal, she reported the blackmail to the police immediately.
- attempted blackmail
- vulnerable to blackmail
- extortion and blackmail
There is no begging, bartering, or blackmail that can get you back this year.
- There is no begging, bartering, or blackmail that can get you back this year.
- OK, so how would potential blackmail information be obtained?
- There were very, it was like blackmail in broad daylight.
- Yeah, and didn't they do like a blackmail campaign to do that?
- I do believe he was running some kind of blackmail operation.
- He defends, in other contexts, the right to have an enforceable blackmail contract.
- And I really believe that our political system is just rife with blackmail.
- Well, because it's our system is predicated on blackmail.
- And then his entire house was wired for audio visual blackmail.
- This, this might be nuclear blackmail, but we are not going to take a risk with this and we can't give you weapons that are offensive.
- But you know, it's not like a judge goes there and goes okay, blackmail from from Harlem.
- Yeah, I think I could think someone's been kidnapped, like, for, like, blackmail or money or whatever.
- And then there was Craig Spence who was really the blacks the the blackmail side of things.
- Yes, I mean, that is to me, it's next question, the blackmail.
- As in he bought the the hotel and the boat where they were recording blackmail.
- That's how they get people like down the line is like, they're like, Oh yes, for blackmail.
- Get some sort of blackmail on the situation, and then if a vacation or something came up where I needed, I would use that towards it.
Examples
-
Weeks ago, she'd sent the Quinns a not-so-subtle blackmail letter: If you want to keep the kid, I need more.
Fiction book (1998) -
You sent a blackmail letter.
-
"The trouble with paying blackmail is that sooner or later you run out of money."
Fiction book (1990) -
Blackmail is a dangerous game, my girl.
-
Medeiros, the lawyer, called me and said, "It's blackmail and my client will pay."
Fiction book (1994) -
The Bonn government was vulnerable to blackmail from Moscow and East Berlin.
Academic text (1994) -
Calhoun repeatedly threatened disunion as a form of blackmail to get what he wanted.
Academic text (2016) -
The actor was a victim of blackmail when someone threatened to release embarrassing photos.
-
In the movie, the villain used blackmail to manipulate the hero for personal gain.
Synonyms
95
7.4
Getting money or other things using threats, force and misuse of power
56
6.9
The act of making someone do something by using threats or violence
9
8.5
Getting money or help from someone by threats
How Coercive
44
8.1
102
5.2
- Offensive
91
6.4
987
3.3
149
4.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Blackmail originally described a 'black' (bad or forced) mail, where mail was an old word for a 'payment' or 'rent' people gave to raiders to stop attacks. So blackmail now means demanding money or protection by using a threat.