bribe

American  

[brahyb] / braɪb /

noun

• bribes
  plural

1. 

   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.

2. anything given or serving to persuade or induce.

   The children were given candy as a bribe to be good.

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verb (used with object)

• bribes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• bribed,
  past participle,  past
• bribing
  present participle

1. to give or promise a bribe to.

   They bribed the reporter to forget about what he had seen.

2. to influence or corrupt by a bribe.

   The judge was too honest to be bribed.

verb (used without object)

• bribes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• bribed,
  past participle,  past
• bribing
  present participle

1. to give a bribe; practice bribery.

bribe British  

/ braɪb /

verb

1. to promise, offer, or give something, usually money, to (a person) to procure services or gain influence, esp illegally

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noun

1. a reward, such as money or favour, given or offered for this purpose

2. any persuasion or lure

3. a length of flawed or damaged cloth removed from the main piece

Usage

What does bribe mean? 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.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• bribability
  noun
• bribeability
  noun
• bribee
  noun
• briber
  noun
• outbribe
  verb (used with object)
• bribable
  adjective
• bribeable
  adjective
• unbribable
  adjective
• unbribed
  adjective
• unbribing
  adjective
• unbribably
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• bribes
  plural

Participles

• bribing
  present
• bribed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• bribe
  simple
• bribes
  simple
• have bribed
  perfect
• has bribed
  perfect
• am bribing
  progressive
• are bribing
  progressive
• is bribing
  progressive
• have been bribing
  perfect progressive
• has been bribing
  perfect progressive

Past

• bribed
  simple
• had bribed
  perfect
• was bribing
  progressive
• were bribing
  progressive
• had been bribing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will bribe
  simple
• will have bribed
  perfect
• will be bribing
  progressive
• will have been bribing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of bribe

1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French: remnant of food given as alms, said to be < an expressive base *bri ( m ) b- denoting something small

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Explanation

You pay a bribe to get someone to do something they wouldn't do otherwise. It's usually dishonest and often criminal. Bribes can be utterly corrupt and illegal — like when you offer a bribe to a politician so she'll make a decision in your favor. On the other hand, a bribe can be somewhat benign — like when your mom bribes you with an ice cream if you play with your little brother. When you bribe someone, you can say you're "greasing their palm."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bribe bribes bribed bribing

Kao told the FBI that the money was a bribe in exchange for the senator’s support for more Navatek funding.

From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2026

Duffy and Acranom’s president, Salvatore Monarca, pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe Diamantis—as did Construction Advocacy Professionals’ owner, Antonietta Roy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

The money was supposedly a bribe to persuade her to go abroad, to avoid the prying eyes of the press.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

By the same token, medicine was free, but God help you if you didn’t bribe the doctors, while hospital nurses receiving no “gift” might let sick patients suffer in their excrement-soiled sheets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

Meanwhile, Mother is raising money for a bribe that will get him some food, so five years and “life” won’t be the same sentence.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

A onetime Interior secretary named Albert Fall was convicted of taking bribes from Doheny and another oilman for no-bid drilling there, and though Doheny himself was acquitted twice, his reputation never recovered.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026

At the same time, however, he hears stories of men paying bribes to avoid army service and later escape the country.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

Fiji's government demanded Friday that the United States hand over evidence showing a Chinese state agency employee living in the country paid bribes on behalf of Beijing.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

He says staff fear they could be targeted, or that criminals could use the data to create highly convincing phishing attempts, scams or demands for bribes.

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026

The bribes, which would undoubtedly have been gleaned from the enormous resources of the church in Alexandria, were said to include some 1,500 pounds of gold—worth about sixteen million dollars in 2007.

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro

So their father taught them in short spurts — 20 minutes maximum, he says — and bribed them with pizza and Capri-Suns.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

The country’s largest wine and spirits distributor has entered into an agreement with federal prosecutors to resolve allegations that its executives and employees bribed alcohol retailers for favorable placement of certain products.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

Is it true, they ask, that Jefferson bribed Trumbull to make it look that way, to show that he, Jefferson, outranked Adams?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026

Meanwhile, Habib is now back in Syria after, he says, having bribed several commanders to terminate his contract.

From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2026

“Yes! They were bribed with immunity! Which proves it couldn’t have been me! It could only have been another scythe!”

From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman

A former salesperson for aircraft maintenance company BizJet International pleaded guilty to bribing foreign officials in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, concluding a long-running bribery case first indicted in 2012.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

The brothers were nearly sidelined after a corruption scandal in Brazil almost a decade ago, in which they admitted to bribing politicians and spent several months in jail.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026

The BBC has also learned that, in another case, an Italian businessman pleaded guilty to bribing the oligarch.

From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2026

The leader of one of South Korea's largest cult-like churches stood trial on Monday accused of bribing the country's former first lady with gifts including a designer handbag and a diamond necklace.

From Barron's ● Dec. 1, 2025

All the news cameras cared about was bribing students to talk about Jeremy.

From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers

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