a. Also 7 -able. [a. F. corruptible (14th c.) or ad. L. corruptibil-is, f. ppl. stem of corrumpĕre to CORRUPT: see -BLE.]
1. Liable to corruption; subject to natural decay and dissolution; perishable, mortal.
(Chiefly in Scriptural phraseology.)
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 8860. Made of corruptybelle matere.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 3459. A coruptible kyng of clay fourmed.
1526–34. Tindale, 1 Cor. ix. 25. They do it to obtayne a corruptible croune, but we to obtayne an vncorruptible croune. Ibid., xv. 53. This corruptible must put on incorruptibilite; and this mortall must put on immortalite.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxvii. § 7. The sacrament being of itself but a corruptible and earthly creature.
1692. Ray, Dissol. World, 29. They held that the World is corruptible.
1796. Southey, Occas. Pieces, v. The soul Inhabits still its corruptible clay.
1848. C. Brontë, Jane Eyre, vi. In putting off our corruptible bodies.
† 2. Pertaining to or characteristic of corruption; corrupt. Obs.
1586. Cogan, Haven Health, li. (1636), 65. Onyons … engender ill humours and corruptible putrifactions in the stomack.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, vii. 116. They … engender winde, and increase crude and corruptible humours.
3. Capable of moral corruption; open to the influence of bribery or corrupt practices.
1677. Orrery, Art of War, 43. If an Officer … be false, corrupted, or corruptable.
1863. H. Cox, Instit., I. viii. 98. The House of Commons … was itself corruptible.
1864. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., IV. 521. Corruptiblest brute of a Chancellor.
4. Liable to verbal, textual or phonetic corruption.
1887. Roget, Old French, 100. The persistence of an essentially corruptible m in some [forms] is a curiosity.
