bribe

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

enPR: brīb, IPA^(key): /bɹaɪb/
Rhymes: -aɪb
Audio (US): (file)

Noun

bribe (plural bribes)

Something (usually money) given in exchange for influence or as an inducement to breaking the law.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:bribe
- c. 1613-1625, Henry Hobart, Yardly v. Ellill
  Undue reward for anything against justice is a bribe.
- 2024 June 17, @InternetHippo, Twitter‎^[1], archived from the original on 29 June 2024:
  The bribes I took did not influence me to become evil. I was evil from the beginning and the bribes were merely a bonus
That which seduces; seduction; allurement.
- 1744, Mark Akenside, The Pleasures of the Imagination:
  Not the bribes of sordid wealth can seduce to leave these everblooming sweets.
- 1974, George Fox, Mario Puzo, Earthquake:
  Remy, this was a bribe! Our whole marriage has been nothing but a series of bribes!

Derived terms

Translations

inducement to a breaking of the rules

Afrikaans: omkoopgeld
Albanian: ryshfet (sq) m, mitë (sq) f
Arabic: رَشْوَة f (rašwa)
Egyptian Arabic: برطيل m (barṭīl)
Armenian: կաշառք (hy) (kašaṙkʻ)
Azerbaijani: rüşvət (az), yeyki (dialectal)
Bashkir: ришүәт (rişwət)
Belarusian: ха́бар m (xábar), по́дкуп m (pódkup)
Bengali: ঘুষ (ghuś)
Bulgarian: по́дкуп (bg) m (pódkup), рушве́т (bg) m (rušvét)
Burmese: လာဘ် (my) (labh)
Catalan: suborn (ca) m
Cebuano: suborno, suhol
Chechen: кхаъ (qaʔ), хӏума (huma)
Chinese:
Cantonese: 賄賂／贿赂 (kui² lou⁶)

Mandarin: 賄賂／贿赂 (zh) (huìlù), 行賄／行贿 (zh) (xínghuì)
Chuvash: взятка (vzjatka)
Czech: úplatek (cs) m
Danish: bestikkelse c
Dutch: steekpenning (nl) m, smeergeld (nl) n
Eastern Mari: взятка (vzatka)
Erzya: казневкс (kaźńevks)
Esperanto: koruptaĵo, ŝmirmono (eo)
Estonian: pistis, altkäemaks
Finnish: lahjus (fi)
French: pot-de-vin (fr) m
Galician: suborno m, aliciamento m, baixamau f, engado m, comechura f
Georgian: ქრთამი (krtami)
German: Bestechungsgeld (de) n, Schmiergeld (de) n
Greek: δωροδοκία (el) f (dorodokía) (giving), δωροληψία (el) f (dorolipsía) (taking)
Hausa: hanci (ha), toshiya
Hebrew: שׁוֹחַד m (shókhad)
Hiligaynon: hiphip
Hindi: रिश्वत (hi) f (riśvat), घूस (hi) f (ghūs)
Hungarian: megvesztegetés (hu), csúszópénz (hu), vesztegetés (hu), kenőpénz (hu)
Icelandic: múta f
Ido: suborno (io)
Indonesian: suap (id), sogokan (id)
Italian: tangente (it) f, bustarella (it) f, mazzetta (it) f
Japanese: 賄賂 (ja) (わいろ, wairo)
Kazakh: пара (para)
Khmer: សំណូក (km) (sɑmnouk)
Korean: 뇌물(賂物) (ko) (noemul), 뢰물(賂物) (roemul) (North Korea), 회뢰(賄賂) (hoeroe)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: بەرتیل (ckb) (bertîl)

Northern Kurdish: bertîl (ku), rişwet (ku)
Kyrgyz: пара (ky) (para)
Lao: ສິນບົນ (sin bon)
Latvian: kukulis m
Lezgi: ришвет (rišvet)
Lithuanian: kyšis m
Macedonian: поткуп m (potkup), мито n (mito), рушвет m (rušvet) (archaic)
Maguindanao: kagakal
Malay: rasuah (ms)
Malayalam: കൈക്കൂലി (ml) (kaikkūli), കോഴ (ml) (kōḻa)
Maltese: tixmiħ m
Maori: moni whakapati, koha whakapati, utu whakapati
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: хахууль (mn) (xaxuulʹ), хээл (mn) (xeel)

Mongolian: ᠬᠠᠬᠤᠤᠯᠢ (qaquuli), ᠬᠡᠭᠡᠯ (kegel)
Ngazidja Comorian: ɓahashishi class 9/10
Nogai: карын (karın)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: bestikkelse m
Oromo: gunaa
Ossetian: гӕртам (gærtam)
Pashto: بډې (ps) f pl (báḍe)
Persian: رشوه (fa) (rešve), بدکند (fa) (bad-kand)
Polish: łapówka (pl) f
Portuguese: suborno (pt) m, propina (pt) f
Romanian: mită (ro) f, șpagă (ro) f (colloquial)
Russian: взя́тка (ru) f (vzjátka), по́дкуп (ru) m (pódkup), мзда (ru) f (mzda)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: ми́то n

Roman: míto (sh) n
Sinhalese: අල්ලස් (allas)
Slovak: úplatok m
Slovene: podkupnina f
Southern Altai: карын (karïn)
Spanish: soborno (es) m, coima (es) f (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, colloquial), mordida (es) f (Mexico), alfadía (es) f, cañonazo (es) m, untada (es) f, unto (es) m, merusa f, bajín m
Swahili: hongo (sw), rushwa (sw)
Swedish: muta (sv) c, dusör (sv) c
Tagalog: suhol, lagay (tl)
Tajik: пора (tg) (pora), ришва (rišva), ришват (rišvat)
Tamil: லஞ்சம் (ta) (lañcam)
Tatar: ришвәт (tt) (rişwät)
Telugu: లంచము (te) (lañcamu)
Thai: สินบน (th) (sǐn-bon), ส่วย (th) (sùai)
Tibetan: རྒྱུ་རྔན (rgyu rngan), སྐྱབས་རྟེན (skyabs rten)
Turkish: rüşvet (tr)
Turkmen: para, berim (tk)
Tuvan: хээли (xeeli)
Ukrainian: хаба́р m (xabár), пі́дкуп m (pídkup)
Urdu: رشوت f (riśvat), گھوس f (ghūs)
Uyghur: پارا (para)
Uzbek: pora (uz), rishva, rishvat (uz)
Vietnamese: hối lộ (vi)
Welsh: llwgrwobr (cy) m
Yakut: бэрик (berik)
Yiddish: שמיר m (shmir)

Verb

bribe (third-person singular simple present bribes, present participle bribing, simple past and past participle bribed)

(transitive) To give a bribe to; specifically, to ask a person to do something against their original will, in exchange for some type of reward or relief from potential trouble.
She was accused of trying to bribe the jury into making false statements.
- October 23, 1848, Frederick William Robertson, an address delivered at the Opening of The Working Men's Institute
  Neither is he worthy who bribes a man to vote against his conscience.
(transitive) To gain by a bribe; to induce as by a bribe.
to bribe somebody's compliance