bribe
- money or any other valuable consideration given or promised with a view to corrupting the behavior of a person, especially in that person's performance as an athlete, public official, etc.: The motorist offered the arresting officer a bribe to let him go.
- anything given or serving to persuade or induce: The children were given candy as a bribe to be good.
- to give or promise a bribe to: They bribed the reporter to forget about what he had seen.
- to influence or corrupt by a bribe: The judge was too honest to be bribed.
- to give a bribe; practice bribery.
Origin of bribe
Related Words for bribe
gift, kickback, perk, gratuity, blackmail, incentive, compensation, reward, inducement, graft, seduce, entice, tempt, corrupt, bait, lure, sop, ice, take, allurementExamples from the Web for bribe
Contemporary Examples of bribe
In a sense, she attempts to bribe the pastor, offering to make his church her home.
The Good Wife’s Religion Politics: Voters Have No Faith in Alicia's AtheismRegina Lizik
November 24, 2014
But at least in Moscow, a bribe or a good connection stand you a fighting chance to get what you need.
Asked if he did anything wrong, Cianci responded simply, “I was not guilty of conspiracy to take a bribe.”
“I did not have enough money to bribe the judge, so I decided to become a mercenary,” Mozhayev told a local reporter.
Suppose a congressional aide overhears a phone call in which a senator takes a bribe.
Historical Examples of bribe
Would a Sunday-school picnic constitute a bribe worth mentioning?
Meadow GrassAlice Brown
"Maybe you could bribe Jim Wakely into giving something away," she suggested.
Good IndianB. M. Bower
No bribe—and he was shameless in his offers—could wring more than that from her.
The Incomplete AmoristE. Nesbit
Then I tried to bribe them, and they ordered me out of the room.'
A Woman IntervenesRobert Barr
You, with the impudence of your class, think you can come to me and bribe me to betray my employer.
A Woman IntervenesRobert Barr
bribe
- to promise, offer, or give something, usually money, to (a person) to procure services or gain influence, esp illegally
- a reward, such as money or favour, given or offered for this purpose
- any persuasion or lure
- a length of flawed or damaged cloth removed from the main piece
Word Origin for bribe
Word Origin and History for bribe
late 14c., "thing stolen," from Old French bribe "bit, piece, hunk; morsel of bread given to beggars" (14c., cf. Old French bribeor "vagrant, beggar"), from briber, brimber "to beg," a general Romanic word (Gamillscheg marks it as Rotwelsch, i.e. "thieves' jargon"), of uncertain origin; old sources suggest Celtic (cf. Breton breva "to break"). Shift of meaning to "gift given to influence corruptly" is by mid-15c.
late 14c., "pilfer, steal," also "practice extortion," from Old French briber "go begging," from bribe (see bribe (n.)). Related: Bribed; bribing.