| 释义 |
bribery|ˈbraɪbərɪ|
Forms: 5 brybre, brybory, 5–6 brybery, 6 bri-, brybry(e, bryboury, -burrye, 6–7 bri-, bryberie, 6– bribery.
[f. briber + -y3: see -ery; or a. OF. briberie, found in earlier sense of ‘mendicancy’.]
†1. Purloining, larceny, theft, robbery. Obs.
c1386Chaucer Friar's T. 67 He knew of bribryes [v.r. bryberyes, bryberyis, briberies, 2 MSS. briber] mo Than possible is to telle in yeres two. 1387Trevisa Higden vii. xxiv. (Rolls Ser.) VIII. 81 Al þat were about hym ȝaf hem so to robberye and to bryberie [v.r. briborye, brybury]. c1440Promp. Parv. 50/2 Brybery or brybe, manticulum. c1460Towneley Myst. 194 Fy on the, fundlyng, Thou lyfes bot by brybre. 1526Skelton Magnyf. 1242 To theft and bryboury I make some fall And pyke a locke and clyme a wall. 1567Harman Caveat (1869) 34 Charged with fellony or petye brybrye.
†2. Robbery with violence or force; extortion.
1523Fitzherb. Surv. Prol., A gretter bribery nor extorcyon a man can nat do, than vpon his owne tenauntes, for they dare nat say nay nor yet complayne. 1557N. T. (Genev.) Matt. xxiii. 25 Within they are ful of brybery and excesse. 1589Bp. Cooper Admon. 178 To oppresse them by couetousnesse, extortion, and briberie.
3. The exaction or taking of a bribe; ‘the offence of a judge, magistrate, or any person concerned judicially in the administration of public justice, of receiving a reward or consideration from parties interested, for the purpose of procuring a partial or favourable decision’ (Penny Cycl.). arch.
1549Latimer Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 88 Brybery is a pryncely kynde of theuing. Thei will be waged by the rich, eyther to geue sentence agaynste the poore, or to put of the poore mannes causes. Ibid. 113 [The deuyll] goeth about as much as he can to corrupt the men of lawe, to make them fal to bribery. 1621H. Elsing Debates Ho. Lords (1870) 23 His estate raysed by theis briberyes. 1769Blackstone Comm. IV. 139 Bribery is..when a judge, or other person concerned in the administration of justice, takes any undue reward to influence his behaviour in his office. 1836Penny Cycl. V. 407/1 Since the Revolution, in 1688, judicial bribery has been altogether unknown in England.
4. The act or practice of giving or accepting money or some other payment with the object of corruptly influencing the judgement or action; the offer or acceptance of bribes; spec. the application of such influences to gain votes at a parliamentary or other election.
1570Levins Manip. 104 Bribery, ambitus. 1588Greene Pandosto (1607) 20 The simplicitie of his conscience feared him from such deceitfull briberie. a1639W. Whately Prototypes ii. xxvi. (1640) 57 Bribery is naught, that is to seeke to turne a Governour from justice by gifts, and hire him to do wrong. 1767Cowper Let. 16 June, We expect, or rather experience a warm contest between the candidates for the county, the preliminary movements of bribery, threatening, and drunkenness being already taken. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) I. v. 268 This [1571] is the earliest precedent on record for the punishment of bribery in elections. 1863H. Cox Inst. i. viii. 116.
5. Comb., bribery-oath, an oath administrable to a voter at a parliamentary election, declaring that he has not received a bribe for his vote.
1809Tomlins Law Dict. s.v. Parliament vi. (B) 3 The Bribery Oath, which must be taken as required by 2 Geo. II. c. 24. |