blackmailer
Noun: A person who engages in the crime of blackmail. Specifically, a blackmailer is someone who obtains money, property, or services from another person through coercion. This coercion typically involves the threat to reveal damaging, sensitive, or embarrassing information about the victim unless the demands are met.
The word "blackmailer" is used to identify a person who commits the specific crime of blackmail. It carries a strong negative connotation of criminality, manipulation, and exploitation. It is a countable noun.
- The blackmailer sent anonymous letters demanding payment.
- She lived in fear after discovering a blackmailer had photos of her private life.
- The police set up a sting operation to catch the blackmailer.
- Figurative Use: In a non-literal or journalistic context, "blackmailer" can sometimes be used to describe a person or entity that uses undue pressure in negotiations, though this is an extended metaphorical use.
- Critics accused the corporation of acting like a political blackmailer, threatening to move jobs unless it received tax breaks.
- Blackmail (noun/verb): The act or crime itself.
- Blackmailing (gerund/noun): The ongoing action or practice.
- Extortionist: A more general term for someone who obtains something through force or threats.
- Racketeer: Often implies someone involved in organized illegal activities, which can include extortion.
- Coercer: A formal term for someone who compels someone to act through force or threat.
- Victim: The person who is being blackmailed.
- Benefactor: Someone who gives help, especially financial help, freely.
While there are no direct idioms with "blackmailer," the concept is central to the common phrase: - "To pay blackmail": To give in to a blackmailer's demands. - He refused to pay blackmail, deciding instead to go to the police.
- a criminal who extorts money from someone by threatening to expose embarrassing information about them