Meaning
Money paid to stop someone revealing information, usually about the payer's own misconduct. The payment buys silence rather than any service, so the phrase always implies that something discreditable, embarrassing or illegal is being concealed. Strongly negative; implies concealment of misconduct. Regional use: General English.
Origin
Attested from 1709: the OED's earliest evidence is from the essayist and playwright Richard Steele, and the Online Etymology Dictionary likewise dates hush-money, 'bribe paid to ensure silence', to 1709. The compound simply joins hush, an imitative call for quiet recorded as a verb from the 1540s, with money. Nothing more exotic lies behind it - the phrase has described payments to suppress knowledge of wrongdoing in politics, law and private scandal ever since the early eighteenth century.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- hush fund
- hush payment
- pay hush money
Usage Examples
- Prosecutors argued that the monthly transfers to the aide were hush money dressed up as consulting fees.
- She refused the settlement outright, saying no amount of hush money would undo the damage.
- The inquiry heard that a hush fund had been kept in cash in the manager's office drawer.