To wrest from an unwilling person by physical force, menace, duress, torture, or any undue or illegal exercise of power or ingenuity; to wrench away (from); to tear away; to wring (from); to exact; as, to extort contributions from the vanquished; to extort confessions of guilt; to extort a promise; to extort payment of a debt
If someone extorts money from you, they get it from you using force, threats, or other unfair or illegal means. Corrupt government officials were extorting money from him Her kidnapper extorted a £175,000 ransom for her release. = extract. to illegally force someone to give you something, especially money, by threatening them blackmail extort sth from sb (past participle of extorquere, from torquere )
obtain by coercion or intimidation; "They extorted money from the executive by threatening to reveal his past to the company boss"; "They squeezed money from the owner of the business by threatening him"
get or cause to become in a difficult or laborious manner obtain by coercion or intimidation; "They extorted money from the executive by threatening to reveal his past to the company boss"; "They squeezed money from the owner of the business by threatening him"
[ ik-'stort ] (transitive verb.) 1529. Latin extortus, past participle of extorquEre to wrench out, extort, from ex- + torquEre to twist; more at TORTURE.