EXTORT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does extort mean? 

• EXTORT (verb)
  The verb EXTORT has 3 senses:

1. obtain through intimidation

2. obtain by coercion or intimidation

3. get or cause to become in a difficult or laborious manner

  Familiarity information: EXTORT used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXTORT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they extort    ... he / she / it extorts   
Past simple: extorted   
Past participle: extorted   
-ing form: extorting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Obtain through intimidation

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "extort" is one way to...):

take (take by force)

Domain category:

crime; criminal offence; criminal offense; law-breaking ((criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "extort"):

blackmail (obtain through threats)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something from somebody

Derivation:

extortion (unjust exaction (as by the misuse of authority))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Obtain by coercion or intimidation

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

extort; gouge; rack; squeeze; wring

Context example:

They squeezed money from the owner of the business by threatening him

Hypernyms (to "extort" is one way to...):

fleece; gazump; hook; overcharge; pluck; plume; rob; soak; surcharge (rip off; ask an unreasonable price)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "extort"):

bleed (get or extort (money or other possessions) from someone)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something from somebody

Derivation:

extortion (the felonious act of extorting money (as by threats of violence))

extortion (an exorbitant charge)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Get or cause to become in a difficult or laborious manner

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

extort; wring from

Hypernyms (to "extort" is one way to...):

obtain (come into possession of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "extort"):

prise; pry (make an uninvited or presumptuous inquiry)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

"Thank you: I shall do: I have no broken bones,—only a sprain;" and again he stood up and tried his foot, but the result extorted an involuntary "Ugh!"

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“Well, my dear friend,” said my aunt, after a pause, “and you have really extorted the money back from him?”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“I do refuse it,” I replied; and no torture shall ever extort a consent from me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It was some time, however, before a smile could be extorted from Jane.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Both gentlemen had a glance at Fanny, to see if a word of accordant praise could be extorted from her; yet both feeling that it could not be.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

But by what I have gathered from your own relation, and the answers I have with much pains wrung and extorted from you, I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Elinor took no notice of this; and directing her attention to their visitor, endeavoured to support something like discourse with him, by talking of their present residence, its conveniences, &c. extorting from him occasional questions and remarks.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

She did at last extort from her father an acknowledgment that the horses were engaged.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

As John took his horse, and he followed me into the hall, he told me to make haste and put something dry on, and then return to him in the library; and he stopped me, as I made for the staircase, to extort a promise that I would not be long: nor was I long; in five minutes I rejoined him.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Disappointed, however, and vexed as she was, and sometimes displeased with his uncertain behaviour to herself, she was very well disposed on the whole to regard his actions with all the candid allowances and generous qualifications, which had been rather more painfully extorted from her, for Willoughby's service, by her mother.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)