bribe
verb/braɪb/
/braɪb/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they bribe | /braɪb/ /braɪb/ |
| he / she / it bribes | /braɪbz/ /braɪbz/ |
| past simple bribed | /braɪbd/ /braɪbd/ |
| past participle bribed | /braɪbd/ /braɪbd/ |
| -ing form bribing | /ˈbraɪbɪŋ/ /ˈbraɪbɪŋ/ |
- to give somebody money or something valuable in order to persuade them to help you, especially by doing something dishonest
- bribe somebody (with something) They bribed the guards with cigarettes.
- bribe somebody into doing something She was bribed into handing over secret information.
- bribe somebody to do something She bribed him to sign the certificate.
- bribe your way… I managed to bribe my way onto the ship.
- He must have bribed his way out of the prison.
Oxford Collocations DictionaryBribe is used with these nouns as the object:- official
- politician
Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French briber, brimber ‘beg’, of unknown origin. The original sense was ‘rob, extort’, hence (as a noun) ‘theft, stolen goods’, also ‘money extorted or demanded for favours’, later ‘offer money as an incentive’ (early 16th cent.).Want to learn more?
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bribe