▪ I. corrupt, ppl. a.
(kəˈrʌpt)
Also 4 corupt(e, 4–6 corrupte, (5 corruppte).
[a. OF. co(r)rupt (14th c. in Littré) or ad. L. corrupt-us, pa. pple. of corrumpĕre: see corrump.
By Chaucer and Gower often stressed on first syllable.]
† A. as pa. pple. Corrupted, depraved, spoiled.
| 1340 Ayenb. 82 Hare wyt is al myswent and corupt ase the zuelȝ of þe..wyfman grat myd childe. c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶167 A Iuge that may nat been deceyued ne corrupt. 1484 Caxton Curial 5 That he be not corrupt or coromped. 1557 Paynel Barclay's Jugurth 36 b, How he had corrupt the estates of Rome with his treasur. c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. cxxxvii, Eyes corrupt by ouer-partiall lookes. |
B. as adj.
1. Changed from the naturally sound condition, esp. by decomposition or putrefaction developed or incipient; putrid, rotten or rotting; infected or defiled by that which causes decay. arch.
| c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 91 Þou schalt have pestilence and fevere, cold, and brennynge hete, and corrupt aier. c 1386 Chaucer Merch. T. 1008 A wylde fyr and corrupt pestilence So falle vp on youre bodyes yet to nyght. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xvii. 76 Men duse it in medicines..for clensing of corrupte blude. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 52 It castiþ to þe wounde þe corrupt mater þat is in þe place þat is brusid. 1526–34 Tindale Matt. vii. 17 A corrupt tree bryngethe forthe evyll frute. 1563 Fulke Meteors (1640) 29 b, [It] may breede wormes, as all other corrupt flesh will doe. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 193 The water..having gotten a corrupt quality by the nature and corruption of the mettall. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 695 Vapour, and Mist, and Exhalation hot, Corrupt and Pestilent. 1767 Gooch Treat. Wounds I. 220 A corrupt and stagnant air causes various disorders, and the worst kind of fevers. |
b. Said of the blood of one legally attainted: see corruption 2 b.
| 1641 Termes de la Ley 89 When any is attainted of Felony or Treason, then his bloud is said to bee corrupt, by meanes whereof his children, nor any of his Bloud, cannot be heires to him, or to any other Ancestour. a 1832 Bentham Princ. Penal Law Wks. 1843 I. 480 No title can be deduced through the corrupt blood of the father. |
† 2. Spoiled by base additions; adulterated; debased. Obs.
| 1581 Act 23 Eliz. c. 8 §1 A greate parte of the waxe made and melted within this Realme hath byn founde to bee of late verye corrupt by reason of the deceyptfull mixture thereof. 1683 Col. Rec. Pennsylv. I. 86 They were tould it was about corrupt money. |
3. Debased in character; infected with evil; depraved; perverted; evil, wicked.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B 281 He knew vche contre corupte in hit seluen. c 1380 Antecrist in Todd 3 Treat. Wyclif 123 Þise corupt in mynde wiþstoden treuþ. 1494 Fabyan Chron. v. lxxxi. 59 Perceyuynge his corrupt mynde. 1557 N. T. (Genev.) Eph. iv. 29 Let no corrupt communication procede out of your mouthes. 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. i. 1 The corrupter that the world is, so muche the more carefully must wee shunne all noysome feloshippe. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. iii. ii. 75. 1641 Milton Animadv. Wks. (1851) 206 A Liturgie which had no being..but from the corruptest times. 1758 S. Hayward Serm. i. 11 However disagreeable this truth may appear to corrupt nature. 1857 H. Reed Lect. Eng. Poets viii. 281 Charles II came back..with tastes as corrupt as his morals. 1877 Sparrow Serm. viii. 101 A corrupt form of Christianity. |
4. Perverted from uprightness and fidelity in the discharge of duty; influenced by bribery or the like; venal. a. Of persons.
| 1393 Gower Conf. I. 217 But sodeinly the juge he nome, Which corrupt sat upon the dome. 1621 H. Elsing Debates Ho. Lords. (1870) 16 The L. Chancellor is accused to be a corrupt judge. 1777 Burke Corr. (1844) II. 194 There never was, for any long time, a corrupt representative of a virtuous people. 1838 Lytton Alice iii. i, He was shamefully corrupt in the disposition of his patronage. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 547 Those who receive the filthy lucre are corrupt already. 1876 N. Amer. Rev. CXXIII. 139 A corruptionist and the proprietor of a corrupt legislative squadron. |
b. Of actions, etc.
corrupt practices (at parliamentary, municipal, and other elections): such forms of bribery, direct or indirect, as are made illegal and punishable by the various Corrupt and Illegal Practices Acts, notably that of 1883.
| 1563 in Strype Ann. Ref. I. xxxv. 387 That corrupt labour was made for his deliverance under queen Mary. 1631–2 High Commission Cases (Camden) 312 Discharged them..from being publique Notaryes, for their makeing of false and corrupt acts. 1810 Wellington in Gurw. Desp. V. 534, I have no reason to believe that there is anything corrupt in the transaction. 1863 H. Cox Instit. i. viii. 117 The general laws against corrupt practices at elections. |
5. Of language, texts, etc.: Destroyed in purity, debased; altered from the original or correct condition by ignorance, carelessness, additions, etc.; vitiated by errors or alterations.
| c 1386 Chaucer Man of Law's T. 421 A maner Latyn corrupt was hir speche, But algates ther by was she vnderstonde. 1535 Joye Apol. Tindale 22 The copie was so corrupt. 1632 Lithgow Trav. vii. (1682) 318 Both Tongues being a corrupt Arabick. 1740 Theobald Pref. to Shaks., Shakspeare's case has in a great measure resembled that of a corrupt Classick. Ibid. The emendation of corrupt passages. 1760–72 tr. Juan & Ulloa's Voy. (ed. 3) II. 30 Rimac, an Indian word..from a corrupt pronunciation of which word the Spaniards have derived Lima. 1831 Macaulay Ess., Croker's Boswell note, A grossly corrupt passage from the Ἱκέτιδες of Euripides. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. App. 680 The text seems very corrupt. 1881 Skeat Etymol. Dict. s.v. Necromancy, Low Lat. nigromantia, corrupt form of necromantia. |
▸ Electronics and Computing. Of software or data: containing flaws or damaged in some way, esp. so as to be unusable or inaccessible by normal procedures. Also: (of a disk, card, etc.) containing software or data damaged in this way.
| 1971 Real Time: Infotech State of Art Rep. 508 It is less risky to have such a program tested and available in advance, rather than having hastily to write a program that will..produce a corrected version of a corrupt file. 1990 Micro Decision Feb. 60/3 Experience teaches that sooner or later all key disks become corrupt. 2002 PC World (Nexis) 1 Aug. 183 The recovery process can also often be used to recreate corrupt files—something you previously needed a separate utility for. |
▪ II. corrupt, v.
(kəˈrʌpt)
For forms see the adj.
[app. f. corrupt ppl. a. (cf. to content); but subseq. referred directly to L. corrupt-, ppl. stem of corrumpĕre, and treated as the English representative of that verb, to the supersession of corrump v. After the formation of the vb., corrupt was used for some time as its pa. pple., beside corrupted; and is found also as a short form of the pa. tense.]
1. trans. To spoil or destroy (flesh, fruit, or other organic matter) by physical dissolution or putrid decomposition; to turn from a sound into an unsound impure condition; to cause to ‘go bad’; to make rotten or rotting. arch.
| 1382 Wyclif 2 Cor. iv. 16 Thouȝ the ilke that is withoute⁓forth, oure man be corruptid; nethelees that man that is withinne forth, is renewid. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 221 A body may be fordoo and corrupted. 1555 Eden Decades 16 The vytales [being] corrupted by taking water at the riftes euyll closed. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 184 margin, Breade corrupteth hony. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia v. 195 It being certainly the quality of the place, either to kill, or cure quickly, as the bodies are more or less corrupted. 1632 Lithgow Trav. v. (1682) 184 The infectious air, that corrupted the blood of strangers. 1796 H. Hunter tr. St. Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) II. 175 Fruits, which..must have performed a voyage of sixty or fourscore leagues, without being corrupted. |
b. fig. Said in reference to the blood of attainted persons: see corruption 2 b.
| 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, ii. iv. 93 And by his Treason, stand'st not thou attainted, Corrupted, and exempt from ancient Gentry? 1628 Coke On Litt. §745 By his attainder of Treason or Felonie his blood is so stained and corrupted as..his children cannot be heyres to him. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) III. 346 The attainder of the father only corrupts the lineal blood, and not the collateral blood between the brothers. |
2. To render unsound or impure by the contamination of putrid matter; to infect, taint, render morbid.
| 1548 Hall Chron. 123 [The town] was now infected and corrupted, with the pestilent plague: whereby twoo partes of the people..wer destroyed. 1563 Fulke Meteors (1640) 16 This kinde of Exhalation corrupteth the ayre, which infecteth the bodies of men and beasts. 1671 R. Bohun Disc. Wind 173 Suffocating Air, which infests the Burning Zone; where the whole Masse is corrupted with intolerable heats. |
† b. To adulterate. Obs.
| 1581 Act 23 Eliz. c. 8. §4 Everye Person and Persons that shall corrupte the Honny..with any deceyptfull myxture, shall forfeyte the Barrell. 1697 View Penal Laws 244 If any..Vintners shall Corrupt or Adulterate any Wine. |
3. To render morally unsound or ‘rotten’; to destroy the moral purity or chastity of; to pervert or ruin (a good quality); to debase, defile.
| a 1300 Cursor M. (Gött.) 1553 heading, How manes sinne þat i of mene, Corrupt all þis world bidene. 1382 Wyclif Gen. vi. 12 Al forsothe flehs had coruptid his weie vpon the erthe. 1526–34 Tindale 1 Cor. xv. 33 Be not deceaved: malicious speakinges corrupte good manners. 1530 Palsgr. 349 That their virgynite shulde be corrupted. 1607 Shakes. Cor. iv. iii. 33 The fittest time to corrupt a mans Wife, is when shee's falne out with her Husband. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxviii. III. 96 The worship of saints and relics corrupted the pure and perfect simplicity of the Christian model. 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 360 The regard to wealth, as the most important object in life, which extensively corrupts Americans. 1871 Morley Voltaire (1886) 158 Lewis XV., perhaps the most worthless of all the creatures that monarchy has ever corrupted. |
4. To destroy or pervert the integrity or fidelity of (a person) in his discharge of duty; to induce to act dishonestly or unfaithfully; to make venal; to bribe.
| 1548 Hall Chron. 138 By corruptying with money diverse Burgesses of the towne. 1596 Spenser F.Q. v. ii. 23 She ment him to corrupt with goodly meede. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxvii. 154 Upon hope of escaping punishment, by corrupting publique Justice. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 226 Baxter was neither to be corrupted nor to be deceived. 1865 Mill in Morn. Star 6 July, A lavish expenditure of money, in corrupting the electors. |
b. with adverbial extension.
| 1601 Shakes. All's Well iv. iii. 204 Whether..it were not possible with well-waighing summes of gold to corrupt him to a reuolt. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 368 The greatest part Of Mankind they corrupted to forsake God their Creator. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones v. vii, The disease applies to the French military politics and corrupts nature over to his side. 1798 Anti-Jacobin xxxi, Endeavouring to corrupt the waiter to mingle poison with the food. |
† 5. To pervert the text or sense of (a law, etc.) by altering it for evil ends. Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif Prov. Prol., Oure writen thingis..that ben not coruptid. 1509 [see corrupting ppl. a. 1]. a 1536 Tindale Exp. Matt. Title-p., The restoring agayne of Moses law corrupte by the Scribes and Pharises. 1611 Bible 2 Cor. ii. 17 Wee are not as many which corrupt the word of God. 1659 Pearson Creed ii. 136 note, The Mahometans, who could not deny but they [those words of the psalm] were spoken of the Messias, were forced to corrupt the text. 1709 Hearne Collect. 4 Oct., The Hereticks corrupted the New Testament. |
6. To destroy the purity of (a language), the correctness or original form of (a written passage, a word, etc.); to alter (language) for the worse as judged by the standard of the original.
| 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 371 Their language is Italian, but corrupted with the Greeke, French, and Spanish. 1699 W. Dampier Voy. II. ii. i. 16 By the Spaniards Islas des Arenas, but the English Seamen..corrupt the same strangely, and some call it the Desarts, other the Desarcusses. 1768 Johnson Pref. to Shaks. Wks. IX. 277 The faults of all [the Publishers]..have..corrupted many passages perhaps beyond recovery. 1881 Skeat Etymol. Dict. s.v. Cutlass, Hence the word was corrupted to curtleaxe. |
7. To spoil (anything) in quality: † a. a thing material. Obs.
| 1526–34 Tindale Matt. vi. 19 Se that ye gaddre you not treasure vpon the erth, where rust and mothes corrupte [1611 doth corrupt, 1881 doth consume]. 1665 Life Earl Essex in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793) 164 Immoderate showers of rain had so corrupted the ground, that the body of foot could not march, nor the train of artillery move. |
b. a thing not material: To spoil, mar. arch.
| 1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. iv. Wks. 1856 I. 48 Thou hast had a good voice, if this colde marshe..have not corrupted it. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks 792 Hee was..called backe again for corrupting the hope conceived of peace. 1632 J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena 161 The Princesse..finding now her pleasure corrupted with the feare of the Fleet that came towards her. 1833 Tennyson Blackbird 15 Plenty corrupts the melody That made thee famous once, when young. |
† 8. To break up the constitution or existing form of; to dissolve, destroy. Obs.
| 1655–60 Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 520/1 Of the corruption of the Number Ten..is generated the Number Nine ..of Nine corrupted is generated Ten, by addition of One. 1729 Clarke Rohault's Nat. Phil. 17 We say an egg is corrupted, when we see the Egg no longer, but a chicken in its place. |
9. intr. To become corrupt or putrid, to ‘go bad’; to undergo decomposition; to putrefy, rot, decay.
| c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1888 The clothered blood for any lechecraft Corrupteth. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 84 b, Take away thy soule, and anone thy body corrupteth and stynketh. 1563 Fulke Meteors 65 b, Gold never corrupteth by rust. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, v. ii. 40 All her Husbandry doth lye on heapes, Corrupting in it owne fertilitie. c 1625 Milton Death Fair Infant 30 Yet can I not persuade me thou art dead, Or that thy corse corrupts in earth's dark womb. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 202 Stagnant Water is..very subject to corrupt, and to stink. 1803 W. Wittman Trav. Turkey 69 The carcasses of dead animals..were scattered in great abundance among the tents, to corrupt and moulder away. |
b. of moral decay.
| 1598 Meres Palladis T., In these declining and corrupting times. 1612 Bacon Ess., Greatn. Kingd. (Arb.) 488 In a slothfull Peace, both courages will effeminate, and maners corrupt. 1816 Southey Poet's Pilgr. iv. 11 The human mind Corrupts and goes to wreck. 1872 Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. lviii. 8 Every unregenerate man is an abortion. He corrupts in the darkness of sin. |
▸ trans. Electronics and Computing. To damage or introduce flaws into (software or data), esp. so as to render it unusable or inaccessible by normal procedures. Also: to make (a disk, card, etc.) unusable by damaging the software or data it contains.
| 1969 Information & Control 15 397 A burst of length b can corrupt at most one of the parity checks. 1983 Austral. Micro Computer Mag. Oct. 21/1 Static electricity may also corrupt data on data storage media (floppy disk, cassette, hard disk, etc). 1993 Australian (Brisbane) 5 Jan. 11/8 About 1500 customers of the TSB Bank in Taranaki had their Cashflow cards ‘corrupted’ last week by a computer software fault. 2002 Wired Aug. 27/2 The so-called embedded systems crammed into jets, cars, and ‘smart’ appliances increasingly rely on the same bug-ridden code that corrupts PowerPoint slides, freezes Ultima games midquest, and costs corporate America $293 billion a year in lost productivity. |