corrupt

adjective: 1. guilty of dishonest practices, as bribery; lacking (in) integrity; crooked; open to or involving bribery or other dishonest practices; characterized by improper conduct (such as bribery or the selling of favors). 2. debased in character; (morally) depraved; perverted; wicked; evil; morally degenerate and perverted. 3. contaminated; unclean. 4. infected; tainted. 5. decayed; putrid; tainted; rotten. verb: 1. to destroy the integrity of; cause to be dishonest, disloyal, etc., especially by bribery; to become or cause to become dishonest or disloyal; to change from good to bad in morals, manners, or actions. 2. bribe. 3. to lower morally; pervert. 4. to debase or become debased morally; deprave. 5. to degrade with unsound principles or moral values. 6. to become corrupt. 7. to cause disintegration or ruin. 8. to mar; rot; spoil. 9. to become tainted or rotten, or to cause to become rotten. 10. to infect or contaminate; taint. 11. to make putrid or putrescent. of a text, manuscript, or language: 1. made inferior by errors or alterations; made meaningless or different in meaning from the original by scribal errors or alterations. 2. to alter for the worse; debase. 3. to alter from the original or correct form or version. 4. adulterated or debased by change from an original or correct condition. of computer programs or data: 1. containing errors. 2. to introduce errors into. 3. to alter from the original or correct form or version. in English Law: to subject (an attainted person) to corruption of blood. corruption of blood: 1. in English law. the impurity before law that results from attainder and disqualifies the attainted person from inheriting, retaining, or bequeathing lands or interests in lands: abolished in 1870. 2. the effect of an attainder which bars a person from inheriting, retaining, or transmitting any estate, rank, or title. [First Known Use: 1563.] Dictionary.com Examples: (a1) a corrupt judge; a corrupt official; corrupt practices in an election. // (a2) a corrupt society. // (a3) to corrupt youth. // Merriam-Webster Examples: (a1) corrupt judges // (v1) Officials were corrupted by greed; was accused of corrupting the youth. // (v5) Some fear the merger will corrupt the competive marketplace. // (v8) The fruits were transported without being corrupted. // (computers 3) The file was corrupted. // (v9) leaving the bodies to corrupt on the field. // (text 4) a corrupt version of the text. //  a politician corrupted by greed // music that corrupts the morals of children // Exposure to bribery can, in and of itself, be corrupting—suggesting a mechanism by which unethical behavior may spread through society. —Dan Ariely, Scientific American, "Corruption Is Contagious," 1 Sep. 2019. // President Trump abused his power, betrayed our national security, and corrupted our elections, all for personal gain. —Steve Geimann, Bloomberg.com, "House Panel Defends Impeachment Process From GOP Criticism," 7 Dec. 2019. Related Words: unscrupulous, crooked, shady, rotten, fraudulent, nefarious, venal, unethical, untrustworthy, depraved, evil, boorish, harm, debase, violate, subvert, ruin, taint, warp, impair. Synonyms: (Verb) bribe, break down, contaminate, debase, decay, decompose, defile, demoralize, disintegrate, fester, foul, mold, molder, perish [chiefly British], pollute, putrefy, rot, spoil, vitiate. (Adjective) contaminated, debased, debauched, decadent, degenerate, degraded, demoralized, depraved, dissipated, dissolute, false, jackleg, libertine, loose, perverse, perverted, putrescent, rakehell (or rakehelly), rakish, reprobate, rotten, sick, spoiled, unclean, untrustworthy, unwholesome, warped. Antonyms: pure, uncorrupt, uncorrupted. Synonym Study 1: Corrupt, dishonest, venal apply to one, especially in public office, who acts on mercenary motives, without regard to honor, right, or justice. A corrupt politician is one originally honest who has succumbed to temptation and begun questionable practices. A dishonest politician is one lacking native integrity. A venal politician is one so totally debased as to sell patronage. Synonym Study 2: Debase, vitiate, deprave, corrupt, debauch, pervert mean to cause deterioration or lowering in quality or character. Debase implies a loss of position, worth, value, or dignity: commercialism has debased the holiday. Vitiate implies a destruction of purity, validity, or effectiveness by allowing entrance of a fault or defect: a foreign policy vitiated by partisanship. Deprave implies moral deterioration by evil thoughts or influences: the claim that society is depraved by pornography. Corrupt implies loss of soundness, purity, or integrity: the belief that bureaucratese corrupts the language. Debauch implies a debasing through sensual indulgence: the long stay on a tropical isle had debauched the ship's crew. Pervert implies a twisting or distorting from what is natural or normal: perverted the original goals of the institute. Synonym Study 3: Vicious, villainous, iniquitous, nefarious, corrupt, degenerate mean highly reprehensible or offensive in character, nature, or conduct. Vicious may directly oppose virtuous in implying moral depravity, or may connote malignancy, cruelty, or destructive violence: a vicious gangster. Villainous applies to any evil, depraved, or vile conduct or characteristic: a villainous assault. Iniquitous implies absence of all signs of justice or fairness: an iniquitous system of taxation. Nefarious suggests flagrant breaching of time-honored laws and traditions of conduct: the nefarious rackets of organized crime. Corrupt stresses a loss of moral integrity or probity causing betrayal of principle or sworn obligations: city hall was rife with corrupt politicians. Degenerate suggests having sunk to an especially vicious or enervated condition: a degenerate regime propped up by foreign powers. Origin: 1250–1300; Middle English (< Anglo-French) < Latin corruptus broken in pieces, corrupted (past participle of corrumpere), equivalent to cor- cor- + rup- (variant stem of rumpere to break) + -tus past participle suffix. C14: from Latin corruptus spoiled, from corrumpere to ruin, literally: break to pieces, from rumpere to break. —Dictionary.com. // First Known Use of corrupt: Verb: 14th century: Adjective: 14th century. History and Etymology: Verb: Middle English, from Latin corruptus, past participle of corrumpere, from com- + rumpere to break — more at reave. Adjective: Middle English, from Anglo-French or Latin; Anglo-French, from Latin corruptus — see corrupt the verb. —Merriam-Webster. Updated: 20 Jan. 2020 {11:03 PM} Sources: 1, 2.