Translate blackmail | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish Definition of blackmail
noun
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 from a person in return for not revealing injurious information:we do not pay blackmail the use of threats or the manipulation of someone’s feelings to force them to do something:out of fear, she submitted to Jim’s emotional blackmail they are trying to blackmail us with hunger
verb
[with object] 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
