1549 H. Latimer 2nd Serm. before Kynges Maiestie 5th Serm. sig. O.iij I wold the Iudges woulde take forth theyr lesson, that there myght be no more iniquitye vsed, nor brybetakynge.

1647 Certaine Seasonable Quæries 1 The late Order, giving liberty and invitation to all men, to question them for bribe-taking and corruption.

1837 Brighton Patriot 26 Dec. It is an act of superlative baseness. But this is said only of individual acts of bribe-taking.

1911 Pacific Monthly Mar. 257/1 All the world knows what followed—how the parties named, together with a number of ‘higher-ups’, were indicted for various bribe-takings.

2004 Daily Tel. 19 May 22/5 The culture of bribe-taking..had become so ingrained in parts of the Met that..the new commissioner..felt compelled to remind his detectives which side of the law they were supposed to be on.

1605 R. Jefferay Sonne of Gods Entertainm. 30 Mercilesse, preiudicant bribe-taking magistrates.

1710 J. Strype Hist. E. Grindal Ep. Ded. p. v The Archbishop had not long before dealt against him for some Defects, either in the Discharge of his Episcopal Function, or for his Bribe-taking Officers.

1880 Fortn. Rev. Feb. 221 The only people who throve were rowdies and bribe-taking judges.

1948 Amer. Slavic & East European Rev. 7 130 A bribe-taking secretary..manufactures a ‘memorandum’ prompting the judges to pronounce a sentence which is hideous not in its form but in its meaning.

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.