on the take

1. Accepting bribes or other illegal income, as in The commission found a number of police officers on the take. [Colloquial; first half of 1900s]

Example Sentences

But the U.S. does not have criminal laws tailored to crypto, because of a mixture of politicians not understanding the technology and being on the take from the industry, which would prefer not to have its leaders prosecuted.

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“I kind of admire the way he’s going about it because it’s so shameless,” Carlsen said on the Take Take Take podcast.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

And it’s not just Republicans on the take.

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“This was not politics as usual. This was politics for profit. This was a United States senator on the take,” Pomerantz said, per the New York Times.

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"This was not politics as usual. This was politics for profit. This was a United States senator on the take," she said.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• crooked 
• fraudulent 
• nefarious 
• rotten 
• shady 
• unethical 
• unscrupulous 
• untrustworthy 
• venal