blackmail

blackmail in law, exaction of money from another by threat of exposure of criminal action or of disreputable conduct. The term was originally used for the tribute levied until the 18th cent. upon the inhabitants of the Scottish border to provide immunity from raids by Scottish bands. Statutes often treat blackmail as a form of extortion .

black·mail / ˈblakˌmāl/ • n. the action, treated as a criminal offense, of demanding money from a person in return for not revealing compromising or injurious information about that person: they were acquitted of charges of blackmail. ∎  money demanded in this way: we do not pay blackmail. ∎  the use of threats or the manipulation of someone's feelings to force them to do something. • v. [tr.] demand money from (a person) in return for not revealing compromising or injurious information about that person: trying to blackmail him for $400,000. ∎  force (someone) to do something by using threats or manipulating their feelings: he had blackmailed her into sailing with him. DERIVATIVES: black·mail·er n.

blackmail the action of demanding money from someone in return for not revealing compromising information about them; the term originally denoted protection money exacted from farmers and landowners in the English and Scottish border country in the 16th and 17th centuries.