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hush money
noun
- a bribe to keep someone silent about something, especially to keep the receiver from exposing a scandal.
hush money
noun
- slang.money given to a person, such as an accomplice, to ensure that something is kept secret
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Word History and Origins
Origin of hush money1
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Idioms and Phrases
A bribe paid to keep something secret, as in No amount of hush money will keep that scandal from coming out . [c. 1700]Discover More
Example Sentences
The Church would “deal with the families in as limited way as possible, and pay them hush money.”
He wants “more than a handout, a payoff, hush money, or a reluctant bribe.”
Plumbers, hush money, enemies list, smoking-gun tape, the whole nine yards.
The employee described it as a kind of hush money, making staffers disinclined to question dubious company practices.
He evidently has no suspicion, or he would have come to us for hush-money long ago.
At such a moment then, called our ladies-legatees, clamorous for hush-money.
His father looked at him with a countenance full of disgust, and answered grimly: "Oh, it's hush-money you're after, is it?"
Said he was afraid it would lead him to accept ‘dirty money’—you know, hush money—from real wrongdoers.
Will the bell-boy who works for tips grow up to be a policeman who accepts hush-money from the corner saloon-keeper?
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Related Words
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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