blackmail
Noun · VerbOpen English WordNet
Noun (1)
- extortion of money by threats to divulge discrediting informationType of extortion
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Translations
Noun extortion of money by threats of public accusation,
- Spanish
- chantaje
- French
- chantage
- German
- Erpressung
- Italian
- ricatto
- Portuguese
- chantagem
- Turkish
- şantaj
- Russian
- шанта́ж šantáž
- Arabic
- اِبْتِزَاز ibtizāz
- Chinese
- 勒索 lèsuǒ
- Japanese
- 恐喝 kyōkatsu
25 more languages
- Dutch
- afpersing
- Polish
- szantaż
- Swedish
- utpressning
- Greek
- εκβιασμός ekviasmós
- Korean
- 강청 gangcheong
- Indonesian
- pemerasan
- Vietnamese
- tống tiền
- Hungarian
- zsarolás
- Portuguese (PT)
- chantagem
- Chinese (Trad.)
- 勒索 lèsuǒ
- Albanian
- shantazh
- Catalan
- xantatge
- Czech
- vydírání
- Danish
- afpresning
- Esperanto
- ĉantaĝo
- Estonian
- šantaaž
- Finnish
- kiristys
- Georgian
- შანტაჟი šanṭaži
- Latvian
- šantāža
- Lithuanian
- šantažas
- Romanian
- șantaj
- Scottish Gaelic
- màl dubh
- Serbo-Croatian
- ucjena
- Slovak
- vydieranie
- Welsh
- blacmel
Verb to extort money
- Spanish
- chantajear
- French
- faire chanter
- German
- erpressen
- Italian
- ricattare
- Portuguese
- chantagear
- Russian
- шантажи́ровать šantažírovatʹ
- Arabic
- اِبْتَزَّ ibtazza
- Chinese
- 勒索 lèsuǒ
- Dutch
- chanteren
- Polish
- szantażować
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: 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 Walter 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. English 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.
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. US
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54