extortion
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ex·tor·tion
(ĭk-stôr′shən)extortion
(ɪkˈstɔːʃən)ex•tor•tion
(ɪkˈstɔr ʃən)n.
Extortion
badger game Extortion, blackmail, intimidation achieved through deception; most specifically, the scheme in which a woman entices a man into a compromising situation, and then victimizes him by demanding money when her male accomplice, often pretending to be the enraged husband, arrives on the scene, threatening violence or scandal. The expression, in common use in the United States since the early 1900s, arose from the cruel sport of badger baiting, in which a live badger was placed in a hole or a barrel so that it could be easily attacked by dogs. Thus, to badger came to mean ‘to worry, pester, or harass,’ and, more intensively, in the sense above, ‘to persecute or blackmail.’ The woman decoy in the badger game is called the badger-worker.
bleed To extort money from an individual or an organization; to pay an unreasonable amount of money; to pay through the nose. This slang term has been in use since the 17th century, at which time bleeding was a common surgical practice. Whether bleeding was natural or surgically induced, loss of blood was significant. The significance of money to most people, and the fact that it can be paid out with or without force, makes the figurative use of bleed relating to money a logical extension of the literal meaning.
fry the fat out of To obtain money by high-pressure tactics or extortion; to milk, put the squeeze on. Just as the frying process removes excess fat, so does extortion or high-pressure fund-raising tactics remove the “fat” or excess wealth from the affluent. This now little-used U.S. slang expression dates from the late 19th century.
His main qualification is admitted to be that of a good collector of funds. No one could, in the historic phrase, fry out more fat. (The Nation, April, 1904)
put the bite on To solicit money from, to hit up for a loan; also, to do so through force, thus, to extort money from, to blackmail. Both uses play on the idea of extracting by exerting pressure. The alternate put the bee on is usually limited to the less forceful borrowing sense. Webster’s Third cites Hartley Howard:
… some smooth hoodlum puts the bee on his daughter for two thousand bucks.
The stronger meaning is the more common, however:
Or did he just happen to see what happened and put the bite on you and you paid him a little now and then to avoid scandal? (Raymond Chandler, High Window, 1942)
shakedown Extortion, blackmail; a forced contribution, as for protection. This term originally referred to a method of getting fruits and nuts out of a tree. In its figurative applications, shakedown conjures images of a person’s being turned upside down and shaken to forcefully remove the money from his pockets.
He [a New York City policeman] was fined 30 days’ pay because he would not stand for a “shakedown,” which means that he had refused to give from time to time upon demand 5 or 10 dollars from his meagre salary to his superiors to be used for purposes unknown. (A. Hodder, The Fight For The City, 1903)
Shake down ‘to extort, plunder’ is frequently used as a verb phrase.
For only last week they were shook down for five hundred by a stray fellow from the Department. (J. Barbicon, Confessions of a Rum-Runner, 1927)
| Noun | 1. | extortion - an exorbitant charge overcharge - a price that is too high |
| 2. | extortion - unjust exaction (as by the misuse of authority); "the extortion by dishonest officials of fees for performing their sworn duty" exaction - act of demanding or levying by force or authority; "exaction of tribute"; "exaction of various dues and fees" | |
| 3. | extortion - the felonious act of extorting money (as by threats of violence) felony - a serious crime (such as murder or arson) blackmail - extortion of money by threats to divulge discrediting information tribute, protection - payment extorted by gangsters on threat of violence; "every store in the neighborhood had to pay him protection" shakedown - extortion of money (as by blackmail) |