bribery
Americannoun
-
briberies
plural
noun
Usage
What does bribery mean? Bribery is the act of giving money (or something else of value) to someone to get them to do something you want them to do, especially something they’re not supposed to do. In other words, bribery is the act of bribing someone—offering them a bribe. 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. Bribery can also refer to the practice of offering someone an incentive to do something, especially a child, as in I tried offering the kids TV time as a reward for cleaning up their room, but apparently bribery doesn’t work because they didn’t do it. Bribery can also refer to the exchange or acceptance of a bribe, but it most commonly refers to the act of offering it. Example: The video clearly shows the lobbyist presenting the senator a briefcase full of money and asking for a favorable vote—it’s an open-and-shut case of bribery.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bribery
1350–1400; Middle English briberie theft < Middle French: begging. See bribe, -ery
Compare meaning
How does bribery compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
If you secretly give money to a contest judge to win a competition rather than play fairly, you engage in bribery. Bribery involves offering money, gifts, or favors to someone in power to influence their actions in your favor. It’s like slipping a dollar to your friend to get them to do your homework or giving a gift to a teacher for a better grade. Bribery is often illegal because it undermines fairness and honesty, creating an unequal playing field where the rules are bent for those willing to pay. This unethical practice can happen in politics, business, sports, and even everyday situations.
Vocabulary lists containing bribery
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:
Those convicted of bribery will have to repay three times what they were given, while Moreno was barred from public office.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
Xu pleaded guilty in April to charges that also included embezzlement and bribery, the court said at the time.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
Unlike the British, from whom the America’s founders adapted impeachment, the Framers wrote a definition of impeachable conduct into the Constitution—“treason, bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026
The country ranked 104th out of 182 in Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index after decades of bribery and influence-peddling scandals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
Gilly jiggled her foot through a Central American earthquake and the bribery trial of a congressman from who cared where.
From "The Great Gilly Hopkins" by Katherine Paterson
In spite of all the watchfulness, and all the briberies of his police, he could never bend to his own service the whole of this power.
From The History of Napoleon Buonaparte by J. G. (John Gibson) Lockhart
These deities might be lured by certain rites and briberies into a transfer of their favors to the besieging army.
From Autobiographical Sketches by Thomas De Quincey
The barefaced acts of injustice and shameless briberies daily occurring in the Mehkames, or halls of justice, would seem almost incredible to an European, and especially an Englishman.
From Travels in Arabia; comprehending an account of those territories in Hedjaz which the Mohammedans regard as sacred by John Lewis Burckhardt
Now your Lordships will find, that, of these faithful domestic servants, there is not one of them who was not concerned in these enormous briberies, and in betraying their own native and natural master.
From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 12 (of 12) by Edmund Burke
By small briberies employed without sense of compromise, Mrs. Becker had a way with those who served her.
From Star-Dust by Fannie Hurst
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.
