Bribe

How to spell bribe

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce bribe

What does bribe mean?

1. nounA sum of money or a favour offered secretly to persuade someone to act dishonestly.
2. verbTo dishonestly persuade someone to act in your favour by giving them money or a gift.

Bribe in a sentence

• noun

  The inspector refused the bribe and reported the company.

• verb

  They tried to bribe the official to speed up the permit.

• noun

  Police found evidence of a bribe hidden in the contractor's accounts.

• verb

  It is illegal to bribe a witness in a court case.

Where does bribe come from?

Language of origin: French

This word arrived from Old French, where 'bribe' meant a piece or morsel of bread, especially a scrap handed to a beggar. The sense in medieval French drifted from a charitable handout toward something taken by extortion, and the related verb 'briber' meant to beg or to scrounge. English picked it up in the late 1300s, at first describing money extorted by an official or alms given to the poor, before settling on the modern meaning of a payment made secretly to corrupt someone. The journey from an innocent crust of bread to an illicit payoff is a striking shift, and it explains why the spelling has no obvious connection to corruption. The silent final 'e' simply marks the long 'i' sound, so spellers only need to remember the single 'b' in the middle and the closing 'e'.

How the word is built

• bribe (whole root word, originally Old French for a scrap of bread given in charity; no separable prefix or suffix in the base form)