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: 賄賂わいろ／贿赂 (kui² lou⁶)

Mandarin: 賄賂わいろ／贿赂 (zh) (huìlù), 行くだり賄まかない／行くだり贿 (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: 賄賂わいろ (ja) (わいろ, wairo)
Kazakh: пара (para)
Khmer: សំណូក (km) (sɑmnouk)
Korean: 뇌물(賂まいない物ぶつ) (ko) (noemul), 뢰물(賂まいない物ぶつ) (roemul) (North Korea), 회뢰(賄賂わいろ) (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 his/her 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