Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Corruption

Cor·rup′tion (k?r-r?p′sh?n), n. [F. corruption, L. corruptio.] 1. The act of corrupting or making putrid, or state of being corrupt or putrid; decomposition or disorganization, in the process of putrefaction; putrefaction; deterioration.

The inducing and accelerating of putrefaction is a subject of very universal inquiry; for corruption is a reciprocal to "generation". Bacon.

2. The product of corruption; putrid matter.

3. The act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity; depravity; wickedness; impurity; bribery.

It was necessary, by exposing the gross corruptions of monasteries, . . . to exite popular indignation against them. Hallam.

They abstained from some of the worst methods of corruption usual to their party in its earlier days. Bancroft.

☞ Corruption, when applied to officers, trustees, etc., signifies the inducing a violation of duty by means of pecuniary considerations. Abbott.

4. The act of changing, or of being changed, for the worse; departure from what is pure, simple, or correct; as, a corruption of style; corruption in language.

Corruption of blood (Law), taint or impurity of blood, in consequence of an act of attainder of treason or felony, by which a person is disabled from inheriting any estate or from transmitting it to others.

Corruption of blood can be removed only by act of Parliament. Blackstone.

Syn. — Putrescence; putrefaction; defilement; contamination; deprivation; debasement; adulteration; depravity; taint. See Depravity.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.