(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.
Ultimatum
Definition:
(n.) A final proposition, concession, or condition; especially, the final propositions, conditions, or terms, offered by either of the parties in a diplomatic negotiation; the most favorable terms a negotiator can offer, the rejection of which usually puts an end to the hesitation.
Example Sentences:
(1) The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) made clear that it would stick to an ultimatum it gave Morsi on Monday that urged the embattled president to respond to a wave of mass protests within 48 hours or face an intervention which would in effect subsume his government.
(2) I wonder if this form of ultimatum, which Mr. Winston condemns, is likely to increase now that this operation is performed under a fee-for-service system?
(3) Delivering ultimatums is a sorry way to go about a ministry, but we will hang on by our fingertips, sad and furious in equal measure, until the authority of women and men is accepted by the church we love but, at times like this, find impossible to defend.
(4) Egypt's president, Mohamed Morsi , vowed to protect his presidency with his life on Tuesday night, hours before an ultimatum from the leader of Egypt's armed forces is due to expire.
(5) The tiny republic said it would consign the Yugoslav federation to history unless its ultimatum was met within days.
(6) "We would like to propose to the Russian side that before issuing ultimatums to a sovereign and independent state, it turn its attention to the disastrous conditions and complete powerlessness of its own national minorities, including the Ukrainian one," read the statement.
(7) Merkel and Sarkozy, in issuing their ultimatum to Greece on Wednesday night, acknowledged that is possible for a country to leave the eurozone.
(8) Martin Rowson on the Greek crisis negotiations – cartoon Read more “After five months of hard negotiations our partners, unfortunately, ended up making a proposal that was an ultimatum towards Greek democracy and the Greek people,” he said in a national address, “an ultimatum at odds with the founding principles and values of Europe , the values of our common European construction.” The leader, who only hours earlier had rejected the proposed reforms after several days of high-stakes talks in Brussels, said Greeks now faced a “historic responsibility” to respond to the ultimatum.
(9) The warships remained anchored in the Crimean port of Sevastopol early on Tuesday, a day after Ukrainian authorities claimed that Russian forces had issued an ultimatum for the ships to surrender or be seized.
(10) One nicotine-free boyfriend issued me with an ultimatum to quit: "I love you and I just want to know that you won't die after we get married."
(11) Merkel's chief of staff, Ronald Pofalla, who is responsible for overseeing the German intelligence services, signalled that Berlin had delivered an ultimatum to Washington.
(12) Yet the moment we proposed the benchmarks, canvassed support for an ultimatum, there was an immediate recourse to the language of the veto.
(13) UPDATE: The Russian defence ministry denies any such ultimatum .
(14) He recently claimed that Bon Jovi offered him an ultimatum: “Join or leave.” “I said I wanted a break.
(15) Leaders in Brussels spoke of the worst crisis in Europe since the second world war, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) set ultimatums before the 17 countries of the single currency, and international ratings agencies classified the bailout terms for Greece as a likely default.
(16) March 3, 2014 UPDATE: Oksana Grytsenko called a Ukrainian navy spokesman, who told her “as far as I know” an ultimatum “has been voiced”, but he referred to a different time for the ultimatum than originally reported by Interfax, which – conflicting times for the assigned zero-hour – would seem to undercut the whole point of an ultimatum.
(17) Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who will chair next week’s Luxembourg meeting, delivered an ultimatum to Athens, warning it would be left “alone” if it did not meet the creditors’ terms for securing remaining bailout funds.
(18) Then, in April, the men returned following Chowdhury's ultimatum.
(19) The whole national health system has undergone cost cuts to comply with an ultimatum from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; otherwise, sorely needed dollar loans would not be forthcoming.
(20) Addressing parliament ahead of the crucial vote, Tsipras, who succumbed to the demands of foreign lenders earlier this month – accepting an ultimatum to find €12bn of savings, by far the heaviest austerity package to date – conceded that his government had been defeated.