| 释义 |
▪ I. corrupt, ppl. a.|kəˈrʌpt|
Also 4 corupt(e, 4–6 corrupte, (5 corruppte).
[a. OF. co(r)rupt (14th c. in Littré) or ad. L. corrupt-us, pa. pple. of corrumpĕre: see corrump.
By Chaucer and Gower often stressed on first syllable.]
†A. as pa. pple. Corrupted, depraved, spoiled.
1340Ayenb. 82 Hare wyt is al myswent and corupt ase the zuelȝ of þe..wyfman grat myd childe. c1386Chaucer Pars. T. ⁋167 A Iuge that may nat been deceyued ne corrupt. 1484Caxton Curial 5 That he be not corrupt or coromped. 1557Paynel Barclay's Jugurth 36 b, How he had corrupt the estates of Rome with his treasur. c1600Shakes. Sonn. cxxxvii, Eyes corrupt by ouer-partiall lookes.
B. as adj.
1. Changed from the naturally sound condition, esp. by decomposition or putrefaction developed or incipient; putrid, rotten or rotting; infected or defiled by that which causes decay. arch.
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 91 Þou schalt have pestilence and fevere, cold, and brennynge hete, and corrupt aier. c1386Chaucer Merch. T. 1008 A wylde fyr and corrupt pestilence So falle vp on youre bodyes yet to nyght. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xvii. 76 Men duse it in medicines..for clensing of corrupte blude. c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 52 It castiþ to þe wounde þe corrupt mater þat is in þe place þat is brusid. 1526–34Tindale Matt. vii. 17 A corrupt tree bryngethe forthe evyll frute. 1563Fulke Meteors (1640) 29 b, [It] may breede wormes, as all other corrupt flesh will doe. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 193 The water..having gotten a corrupt quality by the nature and corruption of the mettall. 1667Milton P.L. x. 695 Vapour, and Mist, and Exhalation hot, Corrupt and Pestilent. 1767Gooch Treat. Wounds I. 220 A corrupt and stagnant air causes various disorders, and the worst kind of fevers.
b. Said of the blood of one legally attainted: see corruption 2 b.
1641Termes de la Ley 89 When any is attainted of Felony or Treason, then his bloud is said to bee corrupt, by meanes whereof his children, nor any of his Bloud, cannot be heires to him, or to any other Ancestour. a1832Bentham Princ. Penal Law Wks. 1843 I. 480 No title can be deduced through the corrupt blood of the father.
†2. Spoiled by base additions; adulterated; debased. Obs.
1581Act 23 Eliz. c. 8 §1 A greate parte of the waxe made and melted within this Realme hath byn founde to bee of late verye corrupt by reason of the deceyptfull mixture thereof. 1683Col. Rec. Pennsylv. I. 86 They were tould it was about corrupt money.
3. Debased in character; infected with evil; depraved; perverted; evil, wicked.
c1325E.E. Allit. P. B 281 He knew vche contre corupte in hit seluen. c1380Antecrist in Todd 3 Treat. Wyclif 123 Þise corupt in mynde wiþstoden treuþ. 1494Fabyan Chron. v. lxxxi. 59 Perceyuynge his corrupt mynde. 1557N. T. (Genev.) Eph. iv. 29 Let no corrupt communication procede out of your mouthes. 1571Golding Calvin on Ps. i. 1 The corrupter that the world is, so muche the more carefully must wee shunne all noysome feloshippe. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. iii. ii. 75. 1641 Milton Animadv. Wks. (1851) 206 A Liturgie which had no being..but from the corruptest times. 1758S. Hayward Serm. i. 11 However disagreeable this truth may appear to corrupt nature. 1857H. Reed Lect. Eng. Poets viii. 281 Charles II came back..with tastes as corrupt as his morals. 1877Sparrow Serm. viii. 101 A corrupt form of Christianity.
4. Perverted from uprightness and fidelity in the discharge of duty; influenced by bribery or the like; venal.
a. Of persons.
1393Gower Conf. I. 217 But sodeinly the juge he nome, Which corrupt sat upon the dome. 1621H. Elsing Debates Ho. Lords. (1870) 16 The L. Chancellor is accused to be a corrupt judge. 1777Burke Corr. (1844) II. 194 There never was, for any long time, a corrupt representative of a virtuous people. 1838Lytton Alice iii. i, He was shamefully corrupt in the disposition of his patronage. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 547 Those who receive the filthy lucre are corrupt already. 1876N. Amer. Rev. CXXIII. 139 A corruptionist and the proprietor of a corrupt legislative squadron.
b. Of actions, etc.
corrupt practices (at parliamentary, municipal, and other elections): such forms of bribery, direct or indirect, as are made illegal and punishable by the various Corrupt and Illegal Practices Acts, notably that of 1883.
1563in Strype Ann. Ref. I. xxxv. 387 That corrupt labour was made for his deliverance under queen Mary. 1631–2High Commission Cases (Camden) 312 Discharged them..from being publique Notaryes, for their makeing of false and corrupt acts. 1810Wellington in Gurw. Desp. V. 534, I have no reason to believe that there is anything corrupt in the transaction. 1863H. Cox Instit. i. viii. 117 The general laws against corrupt practices at elections.
5. Of language, texts, etc.: Destroyed in purity, debased; altered from the original or correct condition by ignorance, carelessness, additions, etc.; vitiated by errors or alterations.
c1386Chaucer Man of Law's T. 421 A maner Latyn corrupt was hir speche, But algates ther by was she vnderstonde. 1535Joye Apol. Tindale 22 The copie was so corrupt. 1632Lithgow Trav. vii. (1682) 318 Both Tongues being a corrupt Arabick. 1740Theobald Pref. to Shaks., Shakspeare's case has in a great measure resembled that of a corrupt Classick. Ibid. The emendation of corrupt passages. 1760–72tr. Juan & Ulloa's Voy. (ed. 3) II. 30 Rimac, an Indian word..from a corrupt pronunciation of which word the Spaniards have derived Lima. 1831Macaulay Ess., Croker's Boswell note, A grossly corrupt passage from the Ἱκέτιδες of Euripides. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. App. 680 The text seems very corrupt. 1881Skeat Etymol. Dict. s.v. Necromancy, Low Lat. nigromantia, corrupt form of necromantia.
▸ Electronics and Computing. Of software or data: containing flaws or damaged in some way, esp. so as to be unusable or inaccessible by normal procedures. Also: (of a disk, card, etc.) containing software or data damaged in this way.
1971Real Time: Infotech State of Art Rep. 508 It is less risky to have such a program tested and available in advance, rather than having hastily to write a program that will..produce a corrected version of a corrupt file. 1990Micro Decision Feb. 60/3 Experience teaches that sooner or later all key disks become corrupt. 2002PC World (Nexis) 1 Aug. 183 The recovery process can also often be used to recreate corrupt files—something you previously needed a separate utility for.
▪ II. corrupt, v.|kəˈrʌpt|
For forms see the adj.
[app. f. corrupt ppl. a. (cf. to content); but subseq. referred directly to L. corrupt-, ppl. stem of corrumpĕre, and treated as the English representative of that verb, to the supersession of corrump v. After the formation of the vb., corrupt was used for some time as its pa. pple., beside corrupted; and is found also as a short form of the pa. tense.]
1. trans. To spoil or destroy (flesh, fruit, or other organic matter) by physical dissolution or putrid decomposition; to turn from a sound into an unsound impure condition; to cause to ‘go bad’; to make rotten or rotting. arch.
1382Wyclif 2 Cor. iv. 16 Thouȝ the ilke that is withoute⁓forth, oure man be corruptid; nethelees that man that is withinne forth, is renewid. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 221 A body may be fordoo and corrupted. 1555Eden Decades 16 The vytales [being] corrupted by taking water at the riftes euyll closed. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 184 margin, Breade corrupteth hony. 1624Capt. Smith Virginia v. 195 It being certainly the quality of the place, either to kill, or cure quickly, as the bodies are more or less corrupted. 1632Lithgow Trav. v. (1682) 184 The infectious air, that corrupted the blood of strangers. 1796H. Hunter tr. St. Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) II. 175 Fruits, which..must have performed a voyage of sixty or fourscore leagues, without being corrupted.
b. fig. Said in reference to the blood of attainted persons: see corruption 2 b.
1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, ii. iv. 93 And by his Treason, stand'st not thou attainted, Corrupted, and exempt from ancient Gentry? 1628Coke On Litt. §745 By his attainder of Treason or Felonie his blood is so stained and corrupted as..his children cannot be heyres to him. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) III. 346 The attainder of the father only corrupts the lineal blood, and not the collateral blood between the brothers.
2. To render unsound or impure by the contamination of putrid matter; to infect, taint, render morbid.
1548Hall Chron. 123 [The town] was now infected and corrupted, with the pestilent plague: whereby twoo partes of the people..wer destroyed. 1563Fulke Meteors (1640) 16 This kinde of Exhalation corrupteth the ayre, which infecteth the bodies of men and beasts. 1671R. Bohun Disc. Wind 173 Suffocating Air, which infests the Burning Zone; where the whole Masse is corrupted with intolerable heats.
†b. To adulterate. Obs.
1581Act 23 Eliz. c. 8. §4 Everye Person and Persons that shall corrupte the Honny..with any deceyptfull myxture, shall forfeyte the Barrell. 1697View Penal Laws 244 If any..Vintners shall Corrupt or Adulterate any Wine.
3. To render morally unsound or ‘rotten’; to destroy the moral purity or chastity of; to pervert or ruin (a good quality); to debase, defile.
a1300Cursor M. (Gött.) 1553 heading, How manes sinne þat i of mene, Corrupt all þis world bidene. 1382Wyclif Gen. vi. 12 Al forsothe flehs had coruptid his weie vpon the erthe. 1526–34Tindale 1 Cor. xv. 33 Be not deceaved: malicious speakinges corrupte good manners. 1530Palsgr. 349 That their virgynite shulde be corrupted. 1607Shakes. Cor. iv. iii. 33 The fittest time to corrupt a mans Wife, is when shee's falne out with her Husband. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xxviii. III. 96 The worship of saints and relics corrupted the pure and perfect simplicity of the Christian model. 1837H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 360 The regard to wealth, as the most important object in life, which extensively corrupts Americans. 1871Morley Voltaire (1886) 158 Lewis XV., perhaps the most worthless of all the creatures that monarchy has ever corrupted.
4. To destroy or pervert the integrity or fidelity of (a person) in his discharge of duty; to induce to act dishonestly or unfaithfully; to make venal; to bribe.
1548Hall Chron. 138 By corruptying with money diverse Burgesses of the towne. 1596Spenser F.Q. v. ii. 23 She ment him to corrupt with goodly meede. 1651Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxvii. 154 Upon hope of escaping punishment, by corrupting publique Justice. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 226 Baxter was neither to be corrupted nor to be deceived. 1865Mill in Morn. Star 6 July, A lavish expenditure of money, in corrupting the electors.
b. with adverbial extension.
1601Shakes. All's Well iv. iii. 204 Whether..it were not possible with well-waighing summes of gold to corrupt him to a reuolt. 1667Milton P.L. i. 368 The greatest part Of Mankind they corrupted to forsake God their Creator. 1749Fielding Tom Jones v. vii, The disease applies to the French military politics and corrupts nature over to his side. 1798Anti-Jacobin xxxi, Endeavouring to corrupt the waiter to mingle poison with the food.
†5. To pervert the text or sense of (a law, etc.) by altering it for evil ends. Obs.
1382Wyclif Prov. Prol., Oure writen thingis..that ben not coruptid. 1509[see corrupting ppl. a. 1]. a1536Tindale Exp. Matt. Title-p., The restoring agayne of Moses law corrupte by the Scribes and Pharises. 1611Bible 2 Cor. ii. 17 Wee are not as many which corrupt the word of God. 1659Pearson Creed ii. 136 note, The Mahometans, who could not deny but they [those words of the psalm] were spoken of the Messias, were forced to corrupt the text. 1709Hearne Collect. 4 Oct., The Hereticks corrupted the New Testament.
6. To destroy the purity of (a language), the correctness or original form of (a written passage, a word, etc.); to alter (language) for the worse as judged by the standard of the original.
1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 371 Their language is Italian, but corrupted with the Greeke, French, and Spanish. 1699W. Dampier Voy. II. ii. i. 16 By the Spaniards Islas des Arenas, but the English Seamen..corrupt the same strangely, and some call it the Desarts, other the Desarcusses. 1768Johnson Pref. to Shaks. Wks. IX. 277 The faults of all [the Publishers]..have..corrupted many passages perhaps beyond recovery. 1881Skeat Etymol. Dict. s.v. Cutlass, Hence the word was corrupted to curtleaxe.
7. To spoil (anything) in quality:
†a. a thing material. Obs.
1526–34Tindale Matt. vi. 19 Se that ye gaddre you not treasure vpon the erth, where rust and mothes corrupte [1611 doth corrupt, 1881 doth consume]. 1665Life Earl Essex in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793) 164 Immoderate showers of rain had so corrupted the ground, that the body of foot could not march, nor the train of artillery move.
b. a thing not material: To spoil, mar. arch.
1602Marston Ant. & Mel. iv. Wks. 1856 I. 48 Thou hast had a good voice, if this colde marshe..have not corrupted it. 1603Knolles Hist. Turks 792 Hee was..called backe again for corrupting the hope conceived of peace. 1632J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena 161 The Princesse..finding now her pleasure corrupted with the feare of the Fleet that came towards her. 1833Tennyson Blackbird 15 Plenty corrupts the melody That made thee famous once, when young.
†8. To break up the constitution or existing form of; to dissolve, destroy. Obs.
1655–60Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 520/1 Of the corruption of the Number Ten..is generated the Number Nine ..of Nine corrupted is generated Ten, by addition of One. 1729Clarke Rohault's Nat. Phil. 17 We say an egg is corrupted, when we see the Egg no longer, but a chicken in its place.
9. intr. To become corrupt or putrid, to ‘go bad’; to undergo decomposition; to putrefy, rot, decay.
c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1888 The clothered blood for any lechecraft Corrupteth. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 84 b, Take away thy soule, and anone thy body corrupteth and stynketh. 1563Fulke Meteors 65 b, Gold never corrupteth by rust. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, v. ii. 40 All her Husbandry doth lye on heapes, Corrupting in it owne fertilitie. c1625Milton Death Fair Infant 30 Yet can I not persuade me thou art dead, Or that thy corse corrupts in earth's dark womb. 1712J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 202 Stagnant Water is..very subject to corrupt, and to stink. 1803W. Wittman Trav. Turkey 69 The carcasses of dead animals..were scattered in great abundance among the tents, to corrupt and moulder away.
b. of moral decay.
1598Meres Palladis T., In these declining and corrupting times. 1612Bacon Ess., Greatn. Kingd. (Arb.) 488 In a slothfull Peace, both courages will effeminate, and maners corrupt. 1816Southey Poet's Pilgr. iv. 11 The human mind Corrupts and goes to wreck. 1872Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. lviii. 8 Every unregenerate man is an abortion. He corrupts in the darkness of sin.
▸ trans. Electronics and Computing. To damage or introduce flaws into (software or data), esp. so as to render it unusable or inaccessible by normal procedures. Also: to make (a disk, card, etc.) unusable by damaging the software or data it contains.
1969Information & Control 15 397 A burst of length b can corrupt at most one of the parity checks. 1983Austral. Micro Computer Mag. Oct. 21/1 Static electricity may also corrupt data on data storage media (floppy disk, cassette, hard disk, etc). 1993Australian (Brisbane) 5 Jan. 11/8 About 1500 customers of the TSB Bank in Taranaki had their Cashflow cards ‘corrupted’ last week by a computer software fault. 2002Wired Aug. 27/2 The so-called embedded systems crammed into jets, cars, and ‘smart’ appliances increasingly rely on the same bug-ridden code that corrupts PowerPoint slides, freezes Ultima games midquest, and costs corporate America $293 billion a year in lost productivity. |