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 corrumpãre: 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 luge 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. Shaks., 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. Maundev. (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. Shaks., Merch. V., III. ii. 75. What Plea so tanted and corrupt.
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, I. viii. 176. Charles II. came back to his native land 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. 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, I. 232. 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.
1733. Theobald, Pref. to Shaks., p. xxxix. Shakespeare’s Case has in a great Measure resembled That of a corrupt Classic. Ibid., p. xl. The Emendation of corrupt Passages.
1760–72. trans. 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 Ἰκέτιδες 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.
