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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
That precipitated a congressional hearing, in which records were subpoenaed about cover-ups, hush money and deleted shadow logs.
It was hush money, basically—payment for signing a waiver that said I would never sue them or talk about any of this to the media and rival affiliates.
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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