corrupt

Etymology

From Middle English corrupten, derived from Latin corruptus, past participle of corrumpō, corrumpere (“to destroy, ruin, injure, spoil, corrupt, bribe”), from com- (“together”) + rumpere (“to break in pieces”).

adj

1. Willing to act dishonestly for personal gain; accepting bribes.
2. In a depraved state; debased; perverted; morally degenerate; weak in morals.
   The government here is corrupt, so we'll emigrate to escape them.
3. Abounding in errors; not genuine or correct; in an invalid state.
   The text of the manuscript is corrupt.
   It turned out that the program was corrupt - that's why it wouldn't open.
4. In a putrid state; spoiled; tainted; vitiated; unsound.

verb

1. (transitive) To make corrupt; to change from good to bad; to draw away from the right path; to deprave; to pervert.
   Don't you dare corrupt my son with those disgusting pictures!
   I think that there is a bad idea around in our world, and that idea is that 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. I think what really happens is that power attracts the corruptible. 4/17/1985, Frank Herbert, 34:18 from the start, in Frank Herbert speaking at UCLA 4/17/1985, UCLACommStudies, archived from the original on 2017-02-10
2. (archaic, intransitive) To become putrid, tainted, or otherwise impure; to putrefy; to rot.
   […] Lanfrank takes Notice of Tract. 3. Doct. 3. cap. 18. ſaying, "I have ſeen many who being full of Humours, have made an Iſſue under the Knee, before due Purgation had been premis'd; whence, by reaſon of the too great Defluxion of Humours, the Legs tumified, ſo that the cauterized Place corrupted, and a Cancer (or rather cacoethic Ulcer) was thereby made, with which great Difficulty was cur'd." 1732, George Smith, Institutiones Chirurgicæ: or, Principles of Surgery, … To which is Annexed, a Chirurgical Dispensatory, …, London: Printed [by William Bowyer] for Henry Lintot, at the Cross-Keys against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet, →OCLC, page 254
3. (transitive) To introduce errors; to place into an invalid state.
   Unplugging a flash drive without dismounting it first can corrupt the data stored on the drive.
4. To debase or make impure by alterations or additions; to falsify.
   to corrupt language, or a holy text
   to corrupt a book
5. To waste, spoil, or consume; to make worthless.