CORRUPT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Corrupt

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/kərˈəpt/ Listen

adjective

Corrupt adj.

1.

Changed from a sound to a putrid state; spoiled; tainted; vitiated; unsound. "Who with such corrupt and pestilent bread would feed them."

2.

Changed from a state of uprightness, correctness, truth, etc., to a worse state; vitiated; depraved; debased; perverted; as, corrupt language; corrupt judges. "At what ease Might corrupt minds procure knaves as corrupt To swear against you."

3.

Abounding in errors; not genuine or correct; as, the text of the manuscript is corrupt.

verb

Corrupt v. t. (past & past part. corrupted; pres. part. corrupting)

1.

To change from a sound to a putrid or putrescent state; to make putrid; to putrefy.

2.

To change from good to bad; to vitiate; to deprave; to pervert; to debase; to defile. "Evil communications corrupt good manners."

3.

To draw aside from the path of rectitude and duty; as, to corrupt a judge by a bribe. "Heaven is above all yet; there sits a Judge That no king can corrupt."

4.

To debase or render impure by alterations or innovations; to falsify; as, to corrupt language; to corrupt the sacred text. "He that makes an ill use of it (language), though he does not corrupt the fountains of knowledge,... yet he stops the pines."

5.

To waste, spoil, or consume; to make worthless. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt."

Corrupt v. i.

1.

To become putrid or tainted; to putrefy; to rot.

2.

To become vitiated; to lose purity or goodness.

See images of 'Corrupt'

Etymology of 'Corrupt'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Corrupt" Quotes from Famous Books

... debt, with a much smaller population, was what it is now; everything was taxed, and wages were very low. But what was most galling was the fact that the misery, the taxes, and the debt had been accumulated, not by the will of the people, but by a corrupt House of Commons, the property of borough-mongers, for the sake of supporting the Bourbons directly, but indirectly and chiefly the House of Hanover and the hated aristocracy. There was also a scandalous list of jobs and pensions. Years afterwards, when ...

— The Revolution in Tanner's Lane • Mark Rutherford

... revenue, he would most loyally cheat the public, as every reputable tradesman must. How could any man serve his time more notably, toward shop-keeping, and pave fairer way into the corporation of a grandly corrupt old English town, than by long graduation of free trade? And Robin was yet too young and careless to know that he could not endure dull work. "How pleasant, how comfortable, how secure," he was saying to himself, "it ...

— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore

... in their minds, to make the necessary sacrifices of the capitalism of the present for that of the future. The majority (as he says) still "undermine the law" instead of more firmly intrenching themselves in the government, and "corrupt the State" instead of installing friendly reform administrations; they still "employ little children, and so exhaust them that they are poor producers when they grow up," instead of making them strong and healthy ...

— Socialism As It Is - A Survey of The World-Wide Revolutionary Movement • William English Walling

... diligence to empty it of that which it may possess of these. It will always have for us all enough of dull and prosaic and commonplace. What profit can there be in seeking to extend the region of these? Profit there will be none, but on the contrary infinite loss. It is stagnant waters which corrupt themselves; not those in agitation and on which the winds are freely blowing. Words of passion and imagination are, as one so grandly called them of old, 'winds of the soul' ([Greek: psyches anemoi]), to keep it in healthful ...

— On the Study of Words • Richard C Trench

... a sacred tradition in certain country districts, far removed from the corrupt animation of large cities, and Maurice's family was noted among all the families of Belair for uprightness, and fidelity to the truth. Germain was going in search of a wife; Marie was too young and too pure for him to think of her in that light, and, unless ...

— The Devil's Pool • George Sand

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