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 withouteforth, 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, trans. 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. Shaks., 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 shall corrupte the Honny … with any deceyptfull myxture, shall forfeyte the Barrell.
1697. View of 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. Shaks., 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. Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., II. 360. The regard to wealth, as the most important object in life, which extensively corrupts Americans.
1872. 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 corruptyng 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.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 226. Baxter was neither to be corrupted nor to be deceived.
1865. Mill, in Daily Tel., 6 July, 3/2. The lavish expenditure of money in corrupting the electors.
b. with adverbial extension.
1601. Shaks., 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. Dampier, Voy., II. II. i. 16. By the Spaniards Isles des Arenas, but the English Seamen … corrupt the Name strangely, and some call it the Desarts, others 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), 163. 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, trans. 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. Shaks., 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, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 202. Stagnant Water is … very subject to corrupt, and to stink, in the Summer.
1803. Wittman, Trav. Turkey, 123. The carcasses of dead animals, such as camels, horses, and asses, 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.
