suborn

American  

[suh-bawrn] / səˈbɔrn /

verb (used with object)

suborns, present (3rd person singular) suborned, past participle, past suborning present participle

1. 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.

2. Law.

   1. to induce (a person, especially a witness) to give false testimony.

   2. to obtain (false testimony) from a witness.

---

suborn British  

/ ˌsʌbɔːˈneɪʃən, səˈbɔːn, sʌˈbɔːnətɪv /

verb

1. to bribe, incite, or instigate (a person) to commit a wrongful act

2. criminal law to induce (a witness) to commit perjury

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subornation
  noun
• suborner
  noun
• subornative
  adjective
• unsuborned
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• suborning
  present
• suborned
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• suborn
  simple
• suborns
  simple
• have suborned
  perfect
• has suborned
  perfect
• am suborning
  progressive
• are suborning
  progressive
• is suborning
  progressive
• have been suborning
  perfect progressive
• has been suborning
  perfect progressive

Past

• suborned
  simple
• had suborned
  perfect
• was suborning
  progressive
• were suborning
  progressive
• had been suborning
  perfect progressive

Future

• will suborn
  simple
• will have suborned
  perfect
• will be suborning
  progressive
• will have been suborning
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

suborn suborns suborned suborning

"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

Discarded by both his fathers, and divorced from his love, where has the pennyless outcast funds to feed the craving avarice of criminal associates, to suborn accomplices, and to bribe witnesses?

From The Loyalists, Vol. 1-3 An Historical Novel by West, Jane

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 Ingersoll, Robert Green

Stanford’s former sailing coach pleaded guilty to conspiring with Singer, but no evidence has emerged that Singer suborned any coaches or officials at Harvard.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 4, 2023

As universities are beaten into the shapes dictated by business, so language is suborned to its ends.

From Salon ● Oct. 24, 2021

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

During the progress of the trial, a fraud, a swindle, a petty theft, was perpetrated by the officers of government, which more than one man, high in office, had a hand in suborning.

From The Felon's Track History Of The Attempted Outbreak In Ireland, Embracing The Leading Events In The Irish Struggle From The Year 1843 To The Close Of 1848 by Doheny, Michael