bribery

bribe | American Dictionary

bribe
noun[ C ]
us/brɑɪb/
the act of giving someone money or something else of value, often illegally, to persuade that person to do something you want:
Congressmen have been accused of accepting bribes to pass bills favoring particular companies.
bribe
verb[ T ]
us/brɑɪb/
to give someone money or something else of value, often illegally, to persuade that person to do something you want:
He was accused of bribing a building inspector.

bribe | Business English

bribe
verb[ T ]
 LAWuk /braɪb/us
to try to make someone do something for you, often something dishonest, by giving them money, gifts, or something else that they want:
bribe sb with sthThey were accused of trying to bribe voters with promises of tax cuts.
bribe sb to do sthCorrupt officials had been bribed to approve shoddy construction work.
bribe
noun[ C ]
 LAWuk /braɪb/us
money or a gift that you give to someone so that they will do something for you, often something dishonest:
offer/accept/take a bribeHe was accused of accepting bribes from wealthy businessmen.
It was easy to see the gift as a sort of bribe.

Examples of bribe

bribe
The costs of business become unnecessarily high due to the inevitability of bribes and red-tape.
Frequently, they had to pay bribes in order to get an appointment.
However, news reports indicate that police forces were more interested in mounting illegal checkpoints and extorting bribes from civilians than in maintaining law and order.
As this involved bribes, naturally the state banned it as illegal.
Other factors include explicit or implicit requirements to give bribes and gifts to, and incompetence of, government functionaries.
Specifically, the costs associated with administrative corruption, namely paying bribes, impose a significant burden on firms.
They were corrupt, accumulated bribes and gifts, and opposed major reforms in the operation of the papacy.
With a mass electorate, on the other hand, politicians seeking re-election are encouraged to promise legislation, not bribes, favours and privileges.
Thus, one mechanism through which political competition reduces corruption is the re-election imperative, which lowers the demand for bribes.
Low-level officials collect bribes and pass a share to those at higher levels.
The clerk accused the qadi of taking bribes and neglecting to follow proper procedure.
Similarly, people who worked in ministries and other bureaucratic institutions would often be much more helpful once they were bribed.
The authors argue that offers of monetary compensation are often perceived as bribes.
There should be no question of bribing potential entrants.
A master was accused of threatening witnesses with violence on the court's premises, another of bribing mariners to testify against their mates." "!
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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.