Meanings
noungreenmail (countable and uncountable, plural greenmails)
plural greenmails
- countableuncountableThe profiting from an attempted hostile takeover by forcing the target company to buy back the hostile bidder's shares at an inflated price.
Greenmails typically result in reduced shareholder value.
2007, S.R. Vishwanath, Corporate Finance, →ISBN, page 6811 more example
He's gonna leverage his position, and he's gonna get as much greenmail as he can.
2013 July 30, Unfinished Business (Suits), season 3, episode 3, spoken by Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman)
verbgreenmail (third-person singular simple present greenmails, present participle greenmailing, simple past and past participle greenmailed)
present singular third person greenmails · participle present greenmailing · participle past greenmailed · past greenmailed
- transitiveTo profit from an attempted hostile takeover by forcing the target company to buy back the hostile bidder's shares at an inflated price.
Origin
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
greenmail. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/greenmail
MLA
“greenmail.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/greenmail. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “greenmail,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/greenmail.
Source: greenmail on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.