Definition of "blackmail" []

• Extortion of money or something else of value from a person by the threat of exposing a criminal act or discreditable information. (noun)
• Something of value extorted in this manner. (noun)
• Tribute formerly paid to freebooters along the Scottish border for protection from pillage. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "But China and Russia oppose economic sanctions, leaving the Bush administration with the dilemma, how to approach the situation without giving in to what they call blackmail?"
• "“Yes, I did,” I said, “but what I’d really meant to do was to use the term blackmail in reference to how the Church wants us to believe in God.”"
• "They denounced what they describe as blackmail being imposed by the international troika of the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank in return for the bailout."