What's the difference between blackmail and robbery?

Blackmail


Definition:

  • (n.) 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.
  • (n.) Payment of money exacted by means of intimidation; also, extortion of money from a person by threats of public accusation, exposure, or censure.
  • (n.) Black rent, or rent paid in corn, flesh, or the lowest coin, a opposed to "white rent", which paid in silver.
  • (v. t.) 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.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Gough, as the degenerate black sheep of an English family trying to blackmail an American adulterer, would curl a long lip into a sneering smile, which became a characteristic of this fine actor's style.
  • (2) Galloway accused Shah of lying about how old she was when she claimed to have been “emotionally blackmailed” into marrying a cousin in Pakistan.
  • (3) Deschamps said: “It’s not that I don’t have confidence in Morgan, I know what he can do, but before making final decisions [on the Euro 2016 squad] it’s important that N’Golo comes with us to get more answers.” Benzema’s lawyer has previously protested his innocence, saying: “He played no part, I repeat no part, in any blackmail or attempted blackmail,” but Deschamps has passed up the opportunity to bring him back into the squad, perhaps feeling the political heat.
  • (4) In a statement, the committee denied Podliska’s accusations and said it “will not be blackmailed into a monetary settlement for a false allegation made by a properly terminated former employee”.
  • (5) It is not clear if Iran received any of these items but a confidential cable released by WikiLeaks appears to show that the head of Iran's drug control department blackmailed the UNODC's representative by suggesting that if the agency did not meet the wishes of Iran, the Islamic republic might "reconsider the scope of its own efforts against the traffickers".
  • (6) In Romania in October a man was subsequently charged with producing and distributing indecent images of children and blackmail.
  • (7) On the other hand, we are very generous, open, positive to UK citizens.” During the debate, MEPs repeatedly cited the rows over claims that May had tried to blackmail the EU by threatening to weaken security cooperation and the comments made by the former Tory leader, Michael Howard , suggesting the UK would go to war over Gibraltar.
  • (8) I will not give in to blackmail, but should I tell my sister of this latest development?
  • (9) This week we see that the ramifications of corporate prostitution continue to hurt her as juniors (looking at you, Harry Crane) use the knowledge of what happened to both blackmail the company and denigrate her.
  • (10) In 2008, Weatherup gave evidence at the trial of Ian Strachan and Sean McGuigan, two men jailed for surreptitiously recording then blackmailing a royal family member over gay sex claims and drug-taking.
  • (11) Bankers threatening to quit the City because of European bonus guidelines are committing "blackmail", a top European Union official said .
  • (12) There’s quite a hidden LGBT element in terms of revenge porn,” adds Noone, who says attackers will sometimes threaten to post pictures “outing” someone to family and friends unless blackmail demands are met.
  • (13) This prevents any investigation of the true background of those who his client claims are international blackmailers.
  • (14) David Cameron was accused on Sunday of blackmail and threats as his attempts to stop Jean-Claude Juncker becoming president of the European commission put him at the centre of a power struggle for control of the European Union.
  • (15) The rhetoric coming from Athens is as heated, where there is talk of European “blackmail” against the free will of Greek voters, as if Europe’s creditor nations don’t have voters of their own.
  • (16) The volte face was a result of Russian blackmail, the Lithuanian president's office said as senior officials in Brussels said Yanukovych was sacrificing the hopes and wishes of most of his countrymen on the altar of Russian money and contracts.
  • (17) We will not yield to blackmail from the president of the United States,” Patrick told reporters.
  • (18) In a previous judgment, the judge referred to suggestions of blackmail, but police have not apparently been involved in the civil case.
  • (19) The Big Brother star who is battling to overturn a high court gagging order brought by a Premier League footballer denied accusations that she attempted to blackmail the player.
  • (20) There were isolated portrayals of gay, lesbian and bisexual characters, but you had to look for them – Dirk Bogarde's 1961 film Victim, about a barrister taking on blackmailers; John Hurt as The Naked Civil Servant in 1975; and an episode of Crown Court a year later, about a gay transvestite entrapped by a policeman.

Robbery


Definition:

  • (n.) The act or practice of robbing; theft.
  • (n.) The crime of robbing. See Rob, v. t., 2.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Arizona on Wednesday executed the oldest person on its death row, nearly 35 years after he was charged with murdering a Bisbee man during a robbery.
  • (2) According to the author's observations in a federal penitentiary, bank robbery more often is a symptomatic act with psychological meaning.
  • (3) He was indicted on weapons charges and accused of plotting robberies and the assassination of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s founder.
  • (4) In his memoirs, Reynolds recalls how, just before the Great Train Robbery took place, he had smoked a Montecristo No 2 cigar: "The thought ran through my mind: I have brought Cuba to Buckinghamshire."
  • (5) Reader was previously jailed for a total of nine years for conspiracy to handle stolen goods and dishonestly handling cash, after the £26m robbery at the Brink’s-Mat warehouse near Heathrow airport in 1983.
  • (6) Police chief Wolfgang Albers, 60, had been criticised for the handling of the violence, with a leaked police report describing this week how officers were initially overwhelmed by events outside the city’s train station, after which more than 100 women filed criminal complaints of sexual assault and robbery, including two accounts of rape.
  • (7) A suspect has been charged with murder and robbery in the case.
  • (8) Two people were arrested on Thursday night following an attempted smash-and-grab robbery at Selfridges department store in central London .
  • (9) The name, Sallah Ali, that he had given to police when he was arrested for robbery in the south of France 2013, might not be the correct name, he said.
  • (10) James Mason is an IRA man holed up in a safe house, who leaves his confinement to lead a bank robbery.
  • (11) Zschäpe was arrested in November 2011, after the bodies of Mundlos and Böhnhardt were found in a burnt out caravan in Eisenach, following a bank robbery that went badly wrong, after which the men apparently killed each other in a suicide pact.
  • (12) Car theft led to a third sentence, and it was during that time that he was to meet Bruce Reynolds , the mastermind of the Great Train Robbery.
  • (13) But despite the attention to detail with which the robbery was executed, fatal errors soon led the police to the doors of most of those who had participated.
  • (14) The plot revolved around the death of a mentally disturbed pizza delivery man who ends up killing himself in a robbery.
  • (15) It is the 50th anniversary of the Great Train Robbery, on Thursday.
  • (16) The two men believed to have founded the NSU with her, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt, set their caravan on fire and killed themselves in 2011 after a bank robbery went wrong.
  • (17) In Thursday's robbery the thieves all fled the scene within minutes.
  • (18) Photograph: AP Abdeslam, who had had several brushes with the law and spent time in prison for armed robbery in 2010, came agonisingly close to arrest in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, but slipped through police hands.
  • (19) For female victims, homicides resulted from disputes in 62.2 per cent of cases, drug-related activities in 13.8 per cent, and robberies in 20.0 per cent of cases.
  • (20) The interim report found that out of a sample of 2,551 incidents that should have been recorded as crimes officers wrongly failed to record 523 of them including sexual offences, crimes of violence, robbery and burglary.