corrupt

• corrumpt (archaic)
• corrump (obsolete)
• corroupt (rare)

From Middle English corrupten, borrowed from Old French corropt, from Latin corruptus, past participle of corrumpō, corrumpere (“to destroy, ruin, injure, spoil, corrupt, bribe”), from com- (“together”) + rumpere (“to break in pieces”).

• IPA^(key): /kəˈɹʌpt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌpt

corrupt (comparative more corrupt, superlative most corrupt)

1. In a depraved state; debased; perverted; morally degenerate; weak in morals.

   The government here is corrupt, so we'll emigrate to escape them.

   • 1613, William Shakespeare; [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene i]:

2. Abounding in errors; not genuine or correct; in an invalid state.

   The text of the manuscript is corrupt.

   It turned out that the program was corrupt - that's why it wouldn't open.

3. In a putrid state; spoiled; tainted; vitiated; unsound.
   • (Can we date this quote by Knolles?)

     Who with such corrupt and pestilent bread would feed them.

• Nouns to which "corrupt" is often applied: practice, state, country, nation, regime, city, government, person, man, politician, leader, mayor, judge, member, minister, file, database, document, woman.

• 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981:

  , Genesis 6:11

  The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

• corrupted

corrupt (third-person singular simple present corrupts, present participle corrupting, simple past and past participle corrupted)

1. (transitive) To make corrupt; to change from good to bad; to draw away from the right path; to deprave; to pervert.

   Don't you dare corrupt my son with those disgusting pictures!

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981:

     , Genesis 6:12

     And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

2. (intransitive) To become putrid or tainted; to putrefy; to rot.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

   • 1732, George Smith, Institutiones Chirurgicæ: or, Principles of Surgery, [...] To which is Annexed, a Chirurgical Dispensatory, [...], London: Printed [by William Bowyer] for Henry Lintot, at the Cross-Keys against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet, OCLC 745299684, page 254:

     […] Lanfrank takes Notice of Tract. 3. Doct. 3. cap. 18. ſaying, "I have ſeen many who being full of Humours, have made an Iſſue under the Knee, before due Purgation had been premis'd; whence, by reaſon of the too great Defluxion of Humours, the Legs tumified, ſo that the cauterized Place corrupted, and a Cancer (or rather cacoethic Ulcer) was thereby made, with which great Difficulty was cur'd."

3. To debase or render impure by alterations or innovations; to falsify.

   to corrupt language, or a holy text

4. To waste, spoil, or consume; to make worthless.
   • Bible, Matthew vi. 19

     Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt.

• corruptible
• corruption
• incorruptible

• corrupt in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• corrupt in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Borrowed from Latin corruptus or from Middle French corrupt.

• IPA^(key): /kɔˈrʏpt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cor‧rupt

corrupt (comparative corrupter, superlative corruptst)

1. corrupt (lacking integrity, being prone to discriminating, open to bribes, etc.)
2. (textual criticism) corrupt (containing (many) errors)
3. deprave, morally corrupt

• corrumperen
• corruptie

Borrowed from Latin corruptus.

corrupt m (feminine singular corrupte, masculine plural corrupts, feminine plural corruptes)

1. corrupt (impure; not in its original form)