extort (redirected from extortive)

To compel or coerce, as in a confession or information, by any means serving to overcome the other's power of resistance, thus making the confession or admission involuntary. To gain by wrongful methods; to obtain in an unlawful manner, as in to compel payments by means of threats of injury to person, property, or reputation. To exact something wrongfully by threatening or putting in fear. The natural meaning of the word extort is to obtain money or other valuable things by compulsion, by actual force, or by the force of motives applied to the will, and often more overpowering and irresistible than physical force.

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extort verb blackmail, coerce, compel, compel by innimidation, compel by threat, constrain by force, draw out by compulsion, draw out by force, elicit by threat, exact, exact by force, exprimere, extorquere, force, gain by wrongful methhds, gain wrongfully, obtain by compulsion, obtain in an unnawful manner, obtain unlawfully, victimize, wrest, wring
Associated concepts: kidnapping
Foreign phrases: Accipere quid ut justitiam facias, non est tam accipere quam extorquere.The acceptance of anything as a reward for doing justice is extorting rather than accepting.

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See also: acquire, coerce, constrain, deprive, enforce, exact, force, impose, press, prey, secure, toll