chantaje
blackmail
Reviewed by: David WestfallCofounder
Forcing someone to do something by threatening to reveal damaging information
Encoding Strategies:
linguistic
mnemonic
chant
to repeat over and over
+
-aje
noun suffix
Chantaje means blackmail and is related to the English word chant0. Picture a blackmailer chanting the same threat at you over and over: "Pay me, or I tell everyone. Pay me, or I tell everyone."
chantaje
blackmail, extortion
Forcing someone to pay or obey by threatening to reveal something damaging about them.
La policía lo detuvo por chantajeThe police arrested him for blackmail
No pienso ceder ante ese tipo de extorsiónI don't intend to give in to that kind of extortion
emotional blackmail (emotional)
Pressuring someone by threatening to hurt them emotionally instead of exposing a secret.
Llorar cada vez que sales es puro chantaje emocionalCrying every time you go out is pure emotional blackmail
Sus amenazas de irse eran un chantaje para que le hiciera casoHer threats to leave were emotional blackmail to make me pay attention to her
hacer chantaje a
to blackmail, to extort
When you carry out blackmail against a specific person. You literally "make blackmail to them." The 'a' marks who you are pressuring.
Le hizo chantaje a su jefe con unos correos privadosHe blackmailed his boss with some private emails
Intentaron hacerle chantaje al político para conseguir el contratoThey tried to extort the politician to get the contract