venal
Pronunciation
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈviːnəl/
venal
Adjectivevenal
- (archaic) For sale; available for purchase.
- Of a position, privilege etc.: available for purchase rather than assigned on merit.
- 2002, Colin Jones (historian), The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 140:
- Thus, regimental commands in the army were – as with the judiciary or the financial bureaucracy – venal posts, which were purchased, bequeathed and sold among the nobility.
- 2002, Colin Jones (historian), The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 140:
- Capable of being bought (of a person); willing to take bribes.
- (of behaviour etc.) Corrupt, mercenary.
- 1785, The Times, 9 Feb 1785, page 1, column C:
- Though there is a disposition in mankind, to declaim against the corruption and peculation of the present times, as being more venal than formerly; yet, if we look back to different periods, we shall find statesmen and politicians, as selfish and corrupt, […] as those who have lately figured on the political stage.
- 1785, The Times, 9 Feb 1785, page 1, column C:
- (for sale) purchasable
- (willing to take bribes) crooked
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002