1
as in decomposing
to go through decomposition
a dead mouse corrupting in the walls produced a terrible smell
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in degrading
to lower in character, dignity, or quality
some observers believe that grossly violent movies corrupt the people who watch them as well as the people who make them
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in bribing
to influence someone with a bribe
he bragged about having corrupted half of the officials on the city council
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of corrupting
Elites stirred up a now familiar moral panic about commerce corrupting letters and mocked Grub Street even as its writers built the first modern freelance economy and mass-print culture.
—
Deni Ellis Béchard, Scientific American, 8 Nov. 2025
But the church also taught that the power of music could be corrupting.
—Vann R. Newkirk Ii, The Atlantic, 18 Oct. 2025
Tales From Beyond the Pale co-creator Glenn McQuaid unleashes a Jason Voorhees whose appearance is concealed not by a hockey mask but a squiggly blur of video noise, corrupting the handheld footage of him stalking college kids through the woods.
—A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 3 Oct. 2025
The additional time exposed to harsh radiation is, not surprisingly, corrupting JunoCam's images.
—Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 12 Sep. 2025
This comes as reports continue to roll in that another August update fail has been corrupting PC SSDs when writing large files.
—Zak Doffman, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2025
May End Up Carrying Weapons—Report Stop the billionaire takeover corrupting our government.
—Kate Plummer, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 Aug. 2025
He was charged with corrupting another with drugs, tampering with evidence, gross abuse of a corpse, trafficking in drugs, possession of drugs, failure to report crime or death and possession of drug paraphernalia.
—Jennifer Rodriguez, Kansas City Star, 10 Aug. 2025
Deni Ellis Béchard, Scientific American, 8 Nov. 2025
But the church also taught that the power of music could be corrupting.
—Vann R. Newkirk Ii, The Atlantic, 18 Oct. 2025
Tales From Beyond the Pale co-creator Glenn McQuaid unleashes a Jason Voorhees whose appearance is concealed not by a hockey mask but a squiggly blur of video noise, corrupting the handheld footage of him stalking college kids through the woods.
—A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 3 Oct. 2025
The additional time exposed to harsh radiation is, not surprisingly, corrupting JunoCam's images.
—Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 12 Sep. 2025
This comes as reports continue to roll in that another August update fail has been corrupting PC SSDs when writing large files.
—Zak Doffman, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2025
May End Up Carrying Weapons—Report Stop the billionaire takeover corrupting our government.
—Kate Plummer, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 Aug. 2025
He was charged with corrupting another with drugs, tampering with evidence, gross abuse of a corpse, trafficking in drugs, possession of drugs, failure to report crime or death and possession of drug paraphernalia.
—Jennifer Rodriguez, Kansas City Star, 10 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for corrupting
Verb
-
Bugs and scientists have long been oddball allies in the effort to understand decomposing bodies, but there's a catch.—
Phaedra Trethan,
USA Today,
29 Oct. 2025
-
The round spots seemed neat compared with their surroundings, clear of the layers of decomposing plankton spotted elsewhere on the seafloor.—
Ashley Strickland,
CNN Money,
29 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
The local politicians like Mayor Wu who are staying mum are just compounding cronyism and degrading the livability of the neighborhood.—
Lou Murray,
Boston Herald,
29 Oct. 2025
-
Rain, wind gusts, birds and other atmospheric surprises during low-altitude flight might alter the inflowing air to the cruise missile, degrading the reactor.—
Dan Vergano,
Scientific American,
28 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Police were dispatched to the scene and the owner eventually lured the pet back down to the ground by bribing it with a cookie.—
Ella Gonzales,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
31 Oct. 2025
-
The Department of Justice brought charges Thursday against the voting machine company Smartmatic, accusing it of allegedly bribing an official in the Philippines to win contracts, according to court papers filed in the Southern District of Florida.—
Olivia Rubin,
ABC News,
17 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
By the time it was all set up, the whole cold, disintegrating place was threaded with lights and lines, flickering everywhere, black and red, the sheer quantity somehow terrifying and embracing at once.—
Blair Braverman,
Outside,
28 Oct. 2025
-
This difference sounds small, but preventing a few tenths of a degree of warming could keep polar ice caps from completely disintegrating, coral reefs from collapsing and other tipping points from triggering.—
Syris Valentine,
Scientific American,
16 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
All of it—having children because her husband wanted them, putting her career on hold to tend pear trees in a midwestern suburb—might come across as out of character for Smith, who spent her formative years subverting traditional gender roles.—
Amy Weiss-Meyer,
The Atlantic,
31 Oct. 2025
-
At a time when homages to retro Latin genres have become a cliché, Como Las Canto Yo succeeds by subverting expectations.—
Ernesto Lechner,
Rolling Stone,
27 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Jennifer then develops a taste for human flesh and begins seducing and killing teenage boys.—
Ashley Hume,
FOXNews.com,
27 Oct. 2025
-
Conveniently, two beautiful young strangers (Ana de Armas, Lorenza Izzo) come by late one stormy night, inviting themselves in and quickly seducing him.—
Tim Grierson,
Vulture,
18 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
The decaying Avenger is one of a dozen wrecks in three very different underwater environments — the western Pacific Ocean off Saipan, Lake Huron, shared by Michigan and Ontario, and the Italian Mediterranean — investigated as part of the ambitious pilot project involving eDNA.—
Katie Hunt,
CNN Money,
7 Nov. 2025
-
The place is decaying and strict, but Luna refuses to give in to its rules.—
John Hopewell,
Variety,
7 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
That goes even further than DESI's hints at weakening dark energy.—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
6 Nov. 2025
-
The central bank cut its benchmark rate for the second time this year at its most recent meeting, in part to help bolster the economy amid a weakening job market.—
Fortune,
Fortune,
5 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Corrupting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/corrupting. Accessed 13 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share