Definition of "bribe" []

• Something, such as money or a favor, offered or given to a person in a position of trust to influence that person's views or conduct. (noun)
• Something serving to influence or persuade. (noun)
• To give, offer, or promise a bribe to. (verb-transitive)
• To give, offer, or promise bribes. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Whether a reward conferred for obedience shall operate as a bribe, or rather as a price paid -- for a _bribe_, strictly speaking, is a price paid, not for doing right, but for doing wrong -- depends sometimes on very slight differences in the management of the particular case -- differences which an undiscriminating mother will not be very ready to appreciate."
• "Prosecutors said the defendants knew they were breaking the law when they agreed to pay the $1.5 million "commission" to the official, even if the word "bribe" wasn't mentioned."
• "A bribe is a bribe is a bribe is a political payoff!"