Blackmail \Black"mail`\, n. [Black + mail a piece of money.]
1. 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. --Sir
W. Scott.
[1913 Webster]
2. Payment of money exacted by means of intimidation; also,
extortion of money from a person by threats of public
accusation, exposure, or censure.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Eng. Law) Black rent, or rent paid in corn, flesh, or the
lowest coin, a opposed to "white rent", which paid in
silver.
[1913 Webster]
To levy blackmail, to extort money by threats, as of injury
to one's reputation.
[1913 Webster]
Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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111 Moby Thesaurus words for "blackmail":
account, allowance, ask, ask for, assessment, badger, badger game,
bill, blood money, bloodsucking, boodle, booty, call, call for,
challenge, claim, clamor for, coerce, compel, contribution,
cry for, demand, demand for, draft, drain, duty, emolument, exact,
exaction, extort, extortion, extortionate demand, fee, footing,
force, force from, graft, haul, heavy demand, hot goods,
hush money, impose, imposition, impost, indent, initiation fee,
insistent demand, issue an ultimatum, levy, levy blackmail, loot,
make, make a demand, mileage, nonnegotiable demand, notice, order,
order up, perks, perquisite, pickings, place an order, plunder,
pork barrel, prize, protection racket, pry loose from, public till,
public trough, put in requisition, ransom, reckoning, rend,
rend from, require, requirement, requisition, retainer,
retaining fee, rip, rip from, rush, rush order, scot, screw,
shake down, shakedown, snatch from, spoil, spoils,
spoils of office, squeeze, stealings, stipend, stolen goods, swag,
take, tax, taxing, tear from, till, tribute, ultimatum, vampirism,
warn, warning, wrench, wrench from, wrest, wring, wring from
Source: Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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Blackmail \Black"mail`\, n. [Black + mail a piece of money.]
1. 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. --Sir
W. Scott.
2. Payment of money exacted by means of intimidation; also,
extortion of money from a person by threats of public
accusation, exposure, or censure.
3. (Eng. Law) Black rent, or rent paid in corn, flesh, or the
lowest coin, a opposed to ``white rent'', which paid in
silver.
To levy blackmail, to extort money by threats, as of injury
to one's reputation.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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