corruption

noun corruptions

1. countable, uncountable The act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity. It was necessary, by exposing the gross corruptions of monasteries, […] to exite popular indignation against them.

   Similar: depravity, wickedness, impurity, bribery, debasement, evil, sinfulness, baseness, corruption, defilement, degeneracy, degradation

2. countable, uncountable 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.

   Similar: adulteration, contamination, debasement, defilement, dirtying, soiling, tainting, graft, decay, decomposition, deterioration, putrefaction

3. countable, uncountable The product of corruption; putrid matter. Think of wandering amid sepulchral ruins, of stumbling over the bones of the dead, of encountering what I cannot describe,—the horror of being among those who are neither the living or the dead;—those dark and shadowless things that sport themselves with the reliques of the dead, and feast and love

   Similar: decay, putrescence, rot

4. countable, uncountable The decomposition of biological matter.
5. countable, uncountable Unethical administrative or executive practices (in government or business), including bribery (offering or receiving bribes), conflicts of interest, nepotism, embezzlement, and so on.

   Similar: venality

6. countable, uncountable The destruction of data by manipulation of parts of it, either by deliberate or accidental human action or by imperfections in storage or transmission media. The idea of having a time lag is to allow for situations when a corruption of some type affects the source server. If a corruption occurs, you do not want it to replicate to the copy of the database, so the time lag gives administrators the opportunity to recognize that a problem exists and then to
7. countable, uncountable The act of changing, or of being changed, for the worse; departure from what is pure, simple, or correct. a corruption of style

   Similar: deterioration, worsening, aggravation, corruption, debasement, degeneration, degradation, devolution, embasement, exacerbation, ruining, withering

8. countable, uncountable A nonstandard form of a word, expression, or text, especially when resulting from misunderstanding, transcription error, or mishearing. (See a usage note about this sense.) The affix ty, like té, Fr., ta, It., dad, Sp., is a corruption of the Latin affix tas, tat, and Greek tes; as bounty, bonté, Fr., bonta, It., bondad, Sp., bonitas from bonus, good; vanity, vanité, Fr., vanita, It., vanidad, Sp, vanitas from vanus, vain.

   Similar: bastardization

9. countable, uncountable Something originally good or pure that has turned evil or impure; a perversion. God creates and produces them, but it is according to the Laws of this Species of Beings who were made to propagate one another, so that in this Production earthly Parents are the Instruments. And how far they may be the Instruments in conveying a Corruption or Pravity, is what we cannot distinctly

Similar: rent-seeking, abasement, adulteration, corruption, debasement, debauchment, defilement, depravation, depravement, impurification, perversion, pollution, profanation · Opposite: exaltation, expiation, preservation, purgation, purification, rehabilitation