extortionate

[ ik-stawr-shuh-nit ]

/ ɪkˈstɔr ʃə nɪt /

grossly excessive; exorbitant: extortionate prices.

characterized by extortion, as persons: extortionate moneylenders.

Origin of extortionate

First recorded in 1780–90; extortion + -ate¹

ex·tor·tion·ate·ly, adverb

Businesses are suffering more each day in an area where the rents are extortionate, and the situation could boil over soon.

Hong Kong Between Calm and Chaos |Ben Leung |October 3, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Her sentence was manifestly excessive (the order to pay an extortionate $186 million alone proves his bias).

Is Julia Tymoshenko Europe’s Aung San Suu Kyi? |Geoffrey Robertson |October 23, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
Do not importune a gentleman to buy of you; and do not charge an extortionate price for a trifling article.

Social Life |Maud C. Cooke
He was thus fitly punished for his extortionate charge to the town for the lumber he used in their manufacture.

Sabbath in Puritan New England |Alice Morse Earle

One can get as much credit as one likes in this country, provided one winks at extortionate charges.

Hard Pressed |Fred M. White
This extortionate rent is really a fine inflicted by idleness on industry.

Britain for the British |Robert Blatchford
They are extortionate and untruthful, and their one set of harness and one tonga are as rotten as pears.

From Sea to Sea |Rudyard Kipling

extortionate

/ (ɪkˈstɔːʃənɪt) /

(of prices, etc) excessive; exorbitant

(of persons) using extortion

extortionately, adverb