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Suborn is from Latin subornare, which translates literally as "to secretly furnish or equip." The sub- that brings the "secretly" meaning to subornare more commonly means "under" or "below," but it has its stealthy meaning in the etymologies of several other English words, including surreptitious (from sub- and rapere, meaning "to seize") and the verb suspect (from sub- or sus- and specere, meaning "to look at"). The ornare (meaning "to furnish") of subornare is also at work in the words ornate, adorn, and ornament.
Examples of suborn in a Sentence
Gene Maddaus, Variety, 10 Mar. 2025
Illiberal leaders select their cabinet members in the same way that emperors used to choose the governors of rebellious provinces: What matters most is the appointee’s loyalty and capacity to resist being suborned or co-opted by others.
—Ivan Krastev, The Atlantic, 3 Jan. 2025
That was suborned by, supported by, and encouraged by the governor of Georgia.
—Leah Feiger, WIRED, 31 Oct. 2024
In Armenia, the ultranationalists were suborned by Moscow.
—Melik Kaylan, Forbes, 9 Oct. 2024
But most of Asia’s one-party states still support a free and open Indo-Pacific rather than the international order China’s revisionist autocracy wishes to create—a hierarchical world in which expansionism is celebrated and great powers are free to suborn the independence of their neighbors.
—Michael Green, Foreign Affairs, 23 Jan. 2024
After the 2007 election, in which his Justice and Development Party, known as the AKP, came close to receiving a majority, Erdogan began to eliminate all checks on his power: the military, the press, and the judiciary were all suborned.
—Soner Cagaptay, Foreign Affairs, 16 Oct. 2017
That list of leaders has grown, though none have called for abandoning the package entirely, and Dichter is rumored to have been suborned with an appointment to Gallant’s post.
—Bernard Avishai, The New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2023
As the links that have bound Russia and Ukraine for centuries slowly snap with every passing year, no wonder Putin is worried and thinks this is his last chance to suborn and subordinate.
—Tim Judah, The New York Review of Books, 19 Feb. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Suborn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suborn. Accessed 5 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLegal Definition
suborn
transitive verb
W. R. LaFave and J. H. IsraelLatin subornare, from sub- secretly + ornare to prepare, equip
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