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bribery

UK/ˈbɹaɪbəɹi/US/ˈbɹaɪbəɹi/
nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,227 of 15,258neutral

Bribery is paying somebody secretly to abuse their position. Charged with bribery, bribery and corruption, an anti-bribery law.

The offence runs both ways: offering is as much a crime as taking. Britain's Bribery Act reaches companies wherever they operate, so a firm can be prosecuted at home for what its agents did abroad, which changed how multinationals behave.

Kiwiev · CC0

Definitions of bribery

  1. 1nounbriberyPaying somebody secretly to abuse their position.C1

    “The official was arrested for bribery after taking cash to approve building permits.”

bribery is a crime.

Where it comes from

  1. Old French

    briber — go begging

  2. Middle English

    bribe

  3. English

    bribe

  4. English, today

    bribery

Built from

  • bribe · Old French — a gift

From bribe + -ery. bribe comes from Middle English bribe, from Old French briber (“go begging”), from the noun bribe (“a gift”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Crime & Law

Practise this word

bribery in the wild

  • Gifts of money or other items of value that are otherwise available to everyone on an equivalent basis, and not for dishonest purposes, are not bribery.

    Bribery

  • Similar has been the case with bribery, which brought negative changes to societal norms as well as to trade.

    Bribery

  • The Act was subsequently amended in 1988 to raise the standard of proof for a finding of bribery.

    Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

  • Baksheesh may have different meanings in different languages and countries including tipping, charitable giving, or bribery.

    Baksheesh

  • A 2017 study found that multinational corporations that were subject to the convention were less likely to engage in bribery than corporations that were based in non-member states.

    OECD Anti-Bribery Convention

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the bribe family

bribebribery

bribery — used about once every 2,471 pages · #7,227 · point at the bar for the others