Meaning
Extort means to obtain something, especially money or information, by using force, threats, or unfair pressure. It often implies illegal or unethical coercion.
Grammar and Usage
- Part of speech: Verb
- Verb type: Transitive (requires an object)
Common structures:
- extort money from someone
- extort a confession from someone
Usage notes:
- Often used in legal or moral contexts.
- The noun form is extortion, and the person who does it is an extortionist.
Common Phrases
- extort money from someone – to get money through threats
- extort a confession – to force someone to confess
- be accused of extortion – to face charges for using threats to get something
Collocations
- verbs: try to extort, attempt to extort, manage to extort
- nouns: money, confession, payment, bribe, information
- prepositions: extort from someone
Examples
- The criminals tried to extort money from the businessman.
- The police said he had extorted thousands of dollars from his victims.
- The gang extorted protection fees from local shops.
- The officer was accused of extorting a confession from the suspect.
- She refused to pay the money he was trying to extort from her.
- The company denied any attempt to extort payment from customers.
- The politician was jailed for extortion.
- They used threats to extort cooperation from the witnesses.
Synonyms or Related
- blackmail
- coerce
- threaten
- force
- compel
- pressure
Antonym
- give freely
- offer
- donate
- volunteer