bribe

A bribe is money or something else of value offered or given to someone to get them to do something you want them to do, especially something they’re not supposed to do.

Bribe can also be used as a verb meaning to offer or give someone a bribe. The act of doing so is called bribery.

In most cases, this refers to the often illegal act of offering money to people in official positions, like politicians, government officials, or sports referees, in order to get them to change an outcome to be more favorable to the person offering the bribe. For example, a businessperson might bribe a senator to vote a certain way, which is of course illegal.

Bribe can also refer to offering an incentive (or the incentive itself) to someone to do something, especially a child, as in I tried bribing the kids with TV time as a reward for cleaning up their room, but apparently even bribes don’t work because they didn’t do it. 

Example: The video clearly shows the lobbyist presenting the senator a briefcase full of money as a bribe for a favorable vote—it’s an open-and-shut case of bribery.

The first records of the word bribe come from the 1300s (though of course people have certainly been bribing each other for much longer than that). It comes from a Middle French word meaning “remnant of food given as alms.”

Bribery is often illegal. Bribing government officials is always illegal, and this is the kind of bribe you often hear about in the news, when such corruption has been uncovered. A bribe like this can result in prison time. But bribes frequently happen in much less official situations. The classic example is slipping the host at a restaurant a bribe to get a table without a reservation. While such bribes aren’t illegal, they’re almost always unethical.

What’s the difference between bribery and extortion? Extortion is basically the act of requiring a bribe from someone, or forcing someone to provide money or favors in some other corrupt way.

What are some other forms related to bribe?

• bribery (noun)
• briber (noun)

What are some words that often get used in discussing bribe?

• corruption
• extortion
• money
• payout
• influence
• solicit
• quid pro quo

What are some words bribe may be commonly confused with?

• extortion

The word bribe is most often used in a legal context referring to corruption cases involving officials who have taken money in exchange for doing something they shouldn’t.

Concern in #eSports is potential for bribing players. Fantasy/betting operations will have integrity tested #G2E2015

— Darren Heitner (@DarrenHeitner) September 30, 2015

PENNSYLVANIA. Disgraced ex-Cong Michael "Ozzie" Myers (D), 77, who served 3 years in fed prison for taking bribes in the 1979 ABSCAM scandal, is now a campaign consultant and apparently a central figure in the latest Philly criminal vote buying scandal. https://t.co/GZRbChxgGz

— Politics1.com (@Politics1com) May 27, 2020

All I’m saying is that when I risk prison to bribe my kids’ way into college, it won’t be USC

— Taffy Brodesser-Akner (@taffyakner) March 13, 2019

Is bribe used correctly in the following sentence?

Just because the bribe wasn’t money doesn’t mean this isn’t a case of bribery.