suborn
Americanverb (used with object)
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suborns,
present (3rd person singular)
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suborned,
past participle, past
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suborning
present participle
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to bribe or induce (someone) unlawfully or secretly to perform some misdeed or to commit a crime
The drug cartel suborned the local police department to turn a blind eye to their trafficking.
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Law.
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to induce (a person, especially a witness) to give false testimony.
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to obtain (false testimony) from a witness.
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verb
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to bribe, incite, or instigate (a person) to commit a wrongful act
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criminal law to induce (a witness) to commit perjury
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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subornsimple
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subornssimple
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have subornedperfect
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has subornedperfect
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am suborningprogressive
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are suborningprogressive
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is suborningprogressive
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have been suborningperfect progressive
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has been suborningperfect progressive
Past
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subornedsimple
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had subornedperfect
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was suborningprogressive
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were suborningprogressive
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had been suborningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of suborn
First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin subornāre “to instigate secretly, prepare clandestinely,” originally, “to supply,” equivalent to sub-, preposition and prefix + ornāre “to equip,” from an assumed ordnāre, a derivative of the noun ordō (stem ordin- ) “line, row, rank, grade”; see origin at sub-, order
Explanation
One of the reasons Mafia bosses are so good at avoiding prison is that they know how to suborn witnesses and jurors — that is, to bribe people to lie. After all, it wouldn't be nice if an accident were to happen on the way to court, right? Technically speaking, suborn doesn't just mean induce someone to conveniently "forget" something in the witness stand, or otherwise get creative with their imagination. An inducement to any kind of crime is suborning, but by far the most common use is in the legal sense above. Or "witness tampering," as the cops call it.
Vocabulary lists containing suborn
The Tragedy of Macbeth
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"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act II
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Oedipus the King
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"It is absolutely an adversary in some areas, which tries to steal our intellectual property, or suborn our citizens," says Lord Ricketts.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2025
“While government agents are permitted to coach cooperating witnesses during the course of an investigation,” he said in an order, “they are not permitted to suborn the commission of a crime.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2020
He’s so important that people even pour their efforts into trying to corrupt or suborn him.
From The Verge ● Feb. 4, 2019
Number two, I am well aware and have a lot of experience in observing what the Russians will do to try to suborn American citizens, to get Americans to this to work for them.
From MSNBC ● Aug. 18, 2018
His original intention had been to attempt to suborn him, and render him pliable by bribery; but now that the moment for action was arrived he dared not make the offer.
From Love-at-Arms by Rafael Sabatini
It suborns witnesses, nurses perjury, defiles the jury box, and stains the judicial ermine.
From Ingersollia Gems of Thought from the Lectures, Speeches, and Conversations of Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, Representative of His Opinions and Beliefs by Robert Green Ingersoll
As universities are beaten into the shapes dictated by business, so language is suborned to its ends.
From Salon ● Oct. 24, 2021
Rosen said Thursday that when Meredith was approached by the FBI after the hotel room sting, Singer’s sprawling conspiracy and his network of allegedly suborned coaches “wasn’t on our radar.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 28, 2019
National policy is suborned, on some issues, to the vetoes and powers of the larger union.
From New York Times ● Jul. 6, 2018
Try saying something like that at one of those business-sponsored conferences where bullheaded billionaires and those whom they’ve effectively suborned are telling us we need to get much tougher with our children.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 27, 2017
He suborned Kaan’s eastern neighbor, Naranjo, which attacked Mutal’s former ally, Oxwitza’.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
The newly elected disrict attorney said his office's stance on the case could change if the brothers "completely accept responsibility for their lies of self-defense and the attempted suborning of perjury they engaged in".
From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2025
Lawyers can't advise you to lie, or they will be suborning perjury.
From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2023
And: “Congress can permissibly criminalize certain obstructive conduct by the President, such as suborning perjury, intimidating witnesses, or fabricating evidence.”
From Slate ● May 29, 2019
Similarly, if Richard Nixon had not been worried about the truth, he would not have been suborning perjury.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 24, 2018
"That would be in effect suborning perjury, Mr. Potash," he said—and Morris glared at Abe.
From Abe and Mawruss Being Further Adventures of Potash and Perlmutter by Montague Glass
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.
