What does bribe mean?
A bribe is a payment or other benefit — money, gifts, favours, or privileges — offered or given to someone, typically a person in a position of trust or authority, in order to make them act dishonestly or against their proper duties. As a noun it denotes the inducement itself, as in 'he accepted a bribe', while as a verb it describes the act of offering such a reward, as in 'they tried to bribe the customs officer'. The word carries an unambiguously negative connotation and appears constantly in discussions of politics, policing, business ethics, and law, where both offering and receiving bribes are criminal offences in most jurisdictions. Related terms include bribery (the general practice) and kickback (a share of proceeds returned to the payer). Because corruption is a universal concern, 'bribe' is among the most widely understood words in public life across English-speaking countries and beyond.
A sum of money or other valuable thing offered or given illicitly to persuade someone in authority to act dishonestly or improperly.
"She was caught slipping a bribe into the officer's pocket."
Countable; often used with verbs like 'offer', 'give', 'take', or 'accept'.
To offer or give someone a bribe in order to induce them to do something dishonest, illegal, or improper.
"They tried to bribe the judge into overturning the verdict."
Often followed by an infinitive clause: 'bribe someone to do something'.
Standard countable plural, used when referring to more than one instance of illicit payment or inducement.
"Investigators uncovered evidence of bribes paid to several officials over the course of the contract negotiations."
The word 'bribe' may trace back to Old French for bread crumbs — literally scraps handed over, though the exact path from 'loaf' to 'lucrative corruption' remains one of etymology's murkier cases.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bribe
The origin of 'bribe' is genuinely uncertain, which makes it unusual among common words. It first appeared in Middle English in the fourteenth century meaning stolen goods or plunder, then shifted to mean extortion payments before acquiring its modern sense of an inducement to act corruptly by the sixteenth century. A widely cited but unproven theory links it to Old French 'briber', said to mean to beg or live on bread crumbs, possibly connected to 'brice' (a scrap of bread). Cognates in other languages have not been firmly established, so any claim of a shared root beyond these French possibilities would be speculative.
Related word forms
How bribe is actually used
Both the noun and verb are strongly negative in connotation and appear frequently in legal, political, and journalistic contexts; they carry no positive register at all. In law, offering, accepting, or soliciting a bribe are distinct offences. The related mass noun 'bribery' names the practice rather than any individual payment, while plural 'bribes' refers to multiple payments.
Easily confused with bribe
A briar is a prickly shrub (or a pipe made from its root), whereas a bribe is a payment made to influence someone dishonestly.