How to Use blackmail in a Sentence

blackmail

noun
  • She was a victim of blackmail.
  • The servant extorted blackmail from her employer.
  • The threats of blackmail which had followed me for so long, ended the minute Mr. Rubin saw that film.
    Julie Miller, VanityFair.com, 9 Apr. 2017
  • But the release of such material can also be a badge of honor, indicating that the target did not succumb to blackmail.
    Andrew Higgins and Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times, 11 Jan. 2017
  • The current US missile defense is aimed instead at shielding the nation from nuclear blackmail or terrorism or threats from a rogue state.
    Jack Detsch, The Christian Science Monitor, 3 May 2017
  • The conspiratorial answer is money: some combination of debts and business connections, with a hint of blackmail thrown in.
    William Saletan, Slate Magazine, 3 Jan. 2017
  • Around 200 are still pawns in a high-stakes game of blackmail.
    CBS News, 29 Oct. 2023
  • But this tale of the press, blackmail, and romance is pure Mank.
    Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 4 Dec. 2020
  • This opens up Trump to blackmail, as does the fabled pee tape.
    Jeet Heer, The New Republic, 27 Mar. 2018
  • The stench of blackmail hangs over the whole enterprise.
    Jacob Silverman, The New Republic, 17 June 2020
  • The knight didn’t seem to take too kindly to Joffrey’s threats of blackmail.
    ELLE, 19 Sep. 2022
  • Thank you for standing up against this kind of blackmail.
    Amy Dickinson, oregonlive, 6 June 2022
  • In the Danish version, this reads as an act of blackmail.
    Elissa Suh, Vogue, 28 June 2024
  • North Korea has a track record of cheating and of blackmail.
    Trudy Rubin, Philly.com, 5 Jan. 2018
  • The five-year contract with the haulers (the basis of the mayor’s blackmail of St. Paul voters) is years too long.
    Letter Writers, Twin Cities, 1 Sep. 2019
  • Be kind and fierce and don’t bend an inch to this emotional blackmail.
    Washington Post, 28 June 2021
  • Trapped in the throes of a blackmail plot, Sylvia doesn't have any interest in a romance.
    Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 11 Feb. 2022
  • When Mary Drake 'fessed up to the police about the burial spot, that removed the final piece of A.D.'s blackmail against the girls.
    Hannah Orenstein, Seventeen, 21 June 2017
  • So yeah, Otis noticed the blackmail scheme and brought it to Grayson, who murdered him, then tried to frame him for the Robin Hood scheme.
    Sara Netzley, EW.com, 25 Oct. 2022
  • And many fear that would mean giving the North the ultimate blackmail tool — and a way to keep the United States at bay.
    Alaska Dispatch News, 28 Oct. 2017
  • The suit says Williams did not bring up the blackmail during this discussion.
    Sabrina Leboeuf, Baltimore Sun, 1 Aug. 2023
  • The blackmail and harassment against her and the Ladies in White continue.
    Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 26 Sep. 2024
  • In the movie's second half Mia tries to blackmail Liu by threatening to give her cell-phone video to the police.
    Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader, 27 June 2018
  • It’s been proven in a lot of our research and others’ research that her kids were used as blackmail.
    Chris Gardner, Billboard, 4 Oct. 2021
  • The same sort of thinking turns out to be a motivating factor in the movie's blackmail ring.
    J.r. Jones, Chicago Reader, 21 Mar. 2018
  • The revenge plan for Zach comes after Tyler and Cyrus blackmail Marcus.
    refinery29.com, 18 May 2018
  • That’s why Google’s decision last week doesn’t amount to blackmail.
    Jeff John Roberts, Fortune, 30 Sep. 2019
  • All Martha's plots turned on blackmail; each of her denouements was a study in blackmail foiled.
    Joan Didion, Vogue, 28 Apr. 2024
  • Hackers can then use your data for various purposes, such as identity theft, fraud or blackmail.
    Kurt Knutsson, Cyberguy Report, Fox News, 23 Nov. 2024
  • While instances of blackmail inside the Pentagon have seen a sharp decline since the Cold War, many of the structural barriers to persistently surveilling Americans have also vanished.
    Dhruv Mehrotra, WIRED, 19 Nov. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'blackmail.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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