blackmail

Universal Words noun, verb noun [U] 1 the crime of demanding money from a person by threatening to tell sb else a secret about them 2 the act of putting pressure on a person or a group to do sth they do not want to do, for example by making threats or by making them feel guilty: emotional / moral blackmail verb [VN] ~ sb (into doing sth) to force sb to give you money or do sth for you by threatening them, for example by saying you will tell people a secret about them: She blackmailed him for years by threatening to tell the newspapers about their affair. * The President said he wouldn't be blackmailed into agreeing to the terrorists' demands.