Library / English Dictionary

CORRUPT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking in integrity

Example:

a corrupt and incompetent city government

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

corrupted; debased; vitiated (ruined in character or quality)

bribable; corruptible; dishonest; purchasable; venal (capable of being corrupted)

depraved; perverse; perverted; reprobate (deviating from what is considered moral or right or proper or good)

dirty; shoddy; sordid (unethical or dishonest)

Praetorian; Pretorian (characteristic of or similar to the corruptible soldiers in the Praetorian Guard with respect to corruption or political venality)

putrid (morally corrupt or evil)

sold-out (having taken a bribe or bribes)

Also:

immoral (deliberately violating accepted principles of right and wrong)

Attribute:

corruption; corruptness (lack of integrity or honesty (especially susceptibility to bribery); use of a position of trust for dishonest gain)

Antonym:

incorrupt (free of corruption or immorality)

Derivation:

corruptness (the state of being corrupt)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Touched by rot or decay

Example:

'corrupt' is archaic

Synonyms:

corrupt; tainted

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

stale (lacking freshness, palatability, or showing deterioration from age)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Containing errors or alterations

Example:

spoke a corrupted version of the language

Synonyms:

corrupt; corrupted

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

imperfect (not perfect; defective or inadequate)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Not straight; dishonest or immoral or evasive

Synonyms:

corrupt; crooked

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

sneaky; underhand; underhanded (marked by deception)

Also:

dishonest; dishonorable (deceptive or fraudulent; disposed to cheat or defraud or deceive)

unlawful (contrary to or prohibited by or defiant of law)

Attribute:

honestness; honesty (the quality of being honest)

Derivation:

corruptness (lack of integrity or honesty (especially susceptibility to bribery); use of a position of trust for dishonest gain)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Alter from the original

Synonyms:

corrupt; spoil

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "corrupt" is one way to...):

modify (make less severe or harsh or extreme)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "corrupt"):

adulterate; debase; dilute; load; stretch (corrupt, debase, or make impure by adding a foreign or inferior substance; often by replacing valuable ingredients with inferior ones)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Place under suspicion or cast doubt upon

Example:

sully someone's reputation

Synonyms:

cloud; corrupt; defile; sully; taint

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "corrupt" is one way to...):

deflower; impair; mar; spoil; vitiate (make imperfect)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make illegal payments to in exchange for favors or influence

Example:

This judge can be bought

Synonyms:

bribe; buy; corrupt; grease one's palms

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "corrupt" is one way to...):

pay (give money, usually in exchange for goods or services)

Domain category:

crime; criminal offence; criminal offense; law-breaking ((criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "corrupt"):

sop (give a conciliatory gift or bribe to)

buy off; pay off (pay someone with influence in order to receive a favor)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

Sam cannot corrupt Sue

Derivation:

corruptible (capable of being corrupted)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality

Example:

corrupt the morals

Synonyms:

corrupt; debase; debauch; demoralise; demoralize; deprave; misdirect; pervert; profane; subvert; vitiate

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "corrupt" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "corrupt"):

carnalise; carnalize; sensualise; sensualize (debase through carnal gratification)

infect (corrupt with ideas or an ideology)

lead astray; lead off (teach immoral behavior to)

poison (spoil as if by poison)

bastardise; bastardize (change something so that its value declines; for example, art forms)

suborn (incite to commit a crime or an evil deed)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

corruptible (capable of being corrupted)

corruption (destroying someone's (or some group's) honesty or loyalty; undermining moral integrity)

corruptive (tending to corrupt or pervert)

Credits

 Context examples: 

He did not abstain from conversing with me: he even called me as usual each morning to join him at his desk; and I fear the corrupt man within him had a pleasure unimparted to, and unshared by, the pure Christian, in evincing with what skill he could, while acting and speaking apparently just as usual, extract from every deed and every phrase the spirit of interest and approval which had formerly communicated a certain austere charm to his language and manner.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

'So very fond of me!' 'tis nonsense all. She loves nobody but herself and her brother. Her friends leading her astray for years! She is quite as likely to have led them astray. They have all, perhaps, been corrupting one another; but if they are so much fonder of her than she is of them, she is the less likely to have been hurt, except by their flattery. 'The only woman in the world whom he could ever think of as a wife.' I firmly believe it. It is an attachment to govern his whole life. Accepted or refused, his heart is wedded to her for ever. 'The loss of Mary I must consider as comprehending the loss of Crawford and Fanny.' Edmund, you do not know me. The families would never be connected if you did not connect them! Oh! write, write. Finish it at once. Let there be an end of this suspense. Fix, commit, condemn yourself.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I therefore often begged his honour to let me go among the herds of Yahoos in the neighbourhood; to which he always very graciously consented, being perfectly convinced that the hatred I bore these brutes would never suffer me to be corrupted by them; and his honour ordered one of his servants, a strong sorrel nag, very honest and good-natured, to be my guard; without whose protection I durst not undertake such adventures.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It was his nature to be communicative; he liked to open to a mind unacquainted with the world glimpses of its scenes and ways (I do not mean its corrupt scenes and wicked ways, but such as derived their interest from the great scale on which they were acted, the strange novelty by which they were characterised); and I had a keen delight in receiving the new ideas he offered, in imagining the new pictures he portrayed, and following him in thought through the new regions he disclosed, never startled or troubled by one noxious allusion.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And when I heard what had happened before that snowy night, from some belonging to our town, cried Martha, the bitterest thought in all my mind was, that the people would remember she once kept company with me, and would say I had corrupted her!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Oh! what a corrupted mind!

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I answered in a faint voice, that death would have been too great a happiness; that although I could not blame the assembly’s exhortation, or the urgency of his friends; yet, in my weak and corrupt judgment, I thought it might consist with reason to have been less rigorous; that I could not swim a league, and probably the nearest land to theirs might be distant above a hundred: that many materials, necessary for making a small vessel to carry me off, were wholly wanting in this country; which, however, I would attempt, in obedience and gratitude to his honour, although I concluded the thing to be impossible, and therefore looked on myself as already devoted to destruction; that the certain prospect of an unnatural death was the least of my evils; for, supposing I should escape with life by some strange adventure, how could I think with temper of passing my days among Yahoos, and relapsing into my old corruptions, for want of examples to lead and keep me within the paths of virtue? that I knew too well upon what solid reasons all the determinations of the wise Houyhnhnms were founded, not to be shaken by arguments of mine, a miserable Yahoo; and therefore, after presenting him with my humble thanks for the offer of his servants’ assistance in making a vessel, and desiring a reasonable time for so difficult a work, I told him I would endeavour to preserve a wretched being; and if ever I returned to England, was not without hopes of being useful to my own species, by celebrating the praises of the renowned Houyhnhnms, and proposing their virtues to the imitation of mankind.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

We are positively corrupting people.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She would not voluntarily give unnecessary pain to any one, and though I may deceive myself, I cannot but think that for me, for my feelings, she would—Hers are faults of principle, Fanny; of blunted delicacy and a corrupted, vitiated mind.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

My master, continuing his discourse, said, “there was nothing that rendered the Yahoos more odious, than their undistinguishing appetite to devour every thing that came in their way, whether herbs, roots, berries, the corrupted flesh of animals, or all mingled together: and it was peculiar in their temper, that they were fonder of what they could get by rapine or stealth, at a greater distance, than much better food provided for them at home. If their prey held out, they would eat till they were ready to burst; after which, nature had pointed out to them a certain root that gave them a general evacuation.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)