SuaviloquyToday’s word

corrupt

Corrupt, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Corrupted; p. pr. & vb. n. Corrupting.]

1. To change from a sound to a putrid or putrescent state; to make putrid; to putrefy.

2. To change from good to bad; to vitiate; to deprave; to pervert; to debase; to defile. Evil communications corrupt good manners. 1. Cor. xv. 33.

3. To draw aside from the path of rectitude and duty; as, to corrupt a judge by a bribe. Heaven is above all yet; there sits a Judge That no king can corrupt. Shak.

4. To debase or render impure by alterations or innovations; to falsify; as, to corrupt language; to corrupt the sacred text. He that makes an ill use of it [language], though he does not corrupt the fountains of knowledge, . . . yet he stops the pines. Locke.

1 more senses

5. To waste, spoil, or consume; to make worthless. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt. Matt. vi. 19.

2 other Webster entries under this spelling

Corrupt (kr-rpt), a.

1. Changed from a sound to a putrid state; spoiled; tainted; vitiated; unsound. Who with such corrupt and pestilent bread would feed them. Knolles.

2. Changed from a state of uprightness, correctness, truth, etc., to a worse state; vitiated; depraved; debased; perverted; as, corrupt language; corrupt judges. At what ease Might corrupt minds procure knaves as corrupt To swear against you. Shak.

3. Abounding in errors; not genuine or correct; as, the text of the manuscript is corrupt.

Corrupt (kr-rpt), v. i.

1. To become putrid or tainted; to putrefy; to rot. Bacon.

2. To become vitiated; to lose putity or goodness.

Shades of meaning

Fernald has no entry of its own for corrupt; he lists it under decay, defile.

He lists it without comment; the entries above explain its neighbors.