• Corruption

    Origin

    From French corruption, from Latin corruptiō

    Full definition of corruption

    Noun

    corruption

    (countable and uncountable; plural corruptions)
    1. The act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity; depravity; wickedness; impurity; bribery.
      • Henry Hallam The Constitutional History of EnglandIt was necessary, by exposing the gross corruptions of monasteries, . . . to exite popular indignation against them.
      • George BancroftThey abstained from some of the worst methods of corruption usual to their party in its earlier days.
      • 2006, Edwin Black, Internal Combustion Chapter 1, But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.
      • 2013-06-07, Gary Younge, Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution, WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets.
    2. The act of corrupting or making putrid, or state of being corrupt or putrid; decomposition or disorganization, in the process of putrefaction; putrefaction; deterioration.
    3. The product of corruption; putrid matter.
    4. The decomposition of biological matter.
    5. Bribing.
    6. (computing) The destruction of data by manipulation of parts of it, either by deliberate or accidental human action or by imperfections in storage or transmission media.
    7. The act of changing, or of being changed, for the worse; departure from what is pure, simple, or correct; as, a corruption of style; corruption in language.
    8. (linguistics) A debased or nonstandard form of a word, expression, or text, resulting from misunderstanding, transcription error, mishearing, etc.
    9. Something that is evil but is supposed to be good.
      • Francis BaconThe inducing and accelerating of putrefaction is a subject of very universal inquiry; for corruption is a reciprocal to generation.

    Usage notes

    Corruption, when applied to officers, trustees, etc., signifies the inducing a violation of duty by means of pecuniary considerations. — Abbott

    Synonyms

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    Derived terms

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    • Corruption of blood, (Law): taint or impurity of blood, in consequence of an act of attainder of treason or felony, by which a person is disabled from inheriting any estate or from transmitting it to others.
      • Corruption of blood can be removed only by act of Parliament. - Blackstone
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