subornedadj.

?1535 tr. Erasmus Lytle Treat. Maner & Forme of Confession sig. M.iij Let them make restitution by some suborned persone, whom they knowe ryghte well to be faythfull and trustie.

1594 T. Nashe Vnfortunate Traveller sig. F4 Because I was his suborned Lorde and master.

1631 J. Weever Anc. Funerall Monuments 15 Suborned counterfeit hired mourners.

1676 A. Marvell Mr. Smirke 45 The Persecution..arose from the High-Priest and his emissaries, by suborned Witnesses, stirring up the rabble.

1702 Hist. France I. vii. vi. 391 The Duke of Bretagne's Herald, who carried the News, was in danger of being hanged as a suborned Person, because he had seen the King in his Journey.

1762 S. Scott Descr. Millenium Hall 96 All the indignation..enabled Miss Melvyn to bear being charged before so low a creature, with a passion for him, and still less to have heard the suborned wretch pretend to confess it.

1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby lix. 587 Do you think that..a hundred suborned witnesses, or a hundred false curs at my heels, or a hundred canting speeches full of oily words, will move me?

1860 C. J. Ellicott Hist. Lect. Life Our Lord vii. 335 To..investigate the many suborned witnesses.

1919 W. H. Dawson German Empire II. xviii. 264 Bismarck had begun to appreciate the value of a suborned Press.

1983 Economist 19 Nov. 18/2 The use of suborned informers to secure convictions against their fellow-terrorists.

2001 S. Walton Out of It (2002) v. 154 The previous eight years had left a trail of corrupt commissioners, bribe-taking policemen, suborned judges and tooled-up street gangs in their wake.

1550 J. Hooper Godly Confession sig. C.iii Hym that shalbe accused for a matter of Religion, vpon malice, euyll wil, hatred disdayn, or bee made and suborned recordes.

1589 W. Warner Albions Eng. (new ed.) vi. xxx. 133 She bar'd so sweet a face, As from the sternest Godhood might extort subborned grace.

1610 G. Carleton Iurisdict. 72 The Fathers..reiecting this suborned and supposititious Canon.

1691 W. King State Protestants of Ireland 118 A People that made no Conscience..to lay Snares for their Lives by false Oaths and suborned Evidence.

1708 R. Jenkin Reasonableness & Certainty Christian Relig. (ed. 3) I. ii. xiv. 257 That it was a suborned Story, and that the Chief Priests had given the Soldiers Money to say it.

a1788 R. Colvill Poet. Wks. (1789) ii. 250 Send forth suborned proofs, Bandied about by sensual parasites.

1800 B. E. Fitz-Gerald Let. 19 Mar. in E. Hay Hist. Insurrection Wexford (1803) App. xi. p. xxxi I congratulate you on your happy escape from becoming the victim of suborned perjury.

1860 J. Forster Deb. Grand Remonstr. 105 Impositions by prerogative..were backed by suborned and scandalous decisions in the courts.

1905 Cornhill Mag. July 56 The suborned evidence of servants and tenants.

1996 F. Whigham Seizures of Will in Early Mod. Eng. Drama iv. 215 Bosola demands belated reward from the cardinal for a suborned murder.