corrupting

verb

present participle of corrupt
1
as in decomposing
to go through decomposition a dead mouse corrupting in the walls produced a terrible smell

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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

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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 Instead, in trying to explain what made both Murdoch and Lamb tick in those early days, Boyle and Graham show us just how intoxicating and corrupting this kind of success can be. — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 2 Sep. 2026 The Apology is Plato’s version of the speech of self-defense Socrates gives when he is tried by the city of Athens for corrupting the youth and not believing in the gods. — Agnes Callard, The New York Review of Books, 18 Aug. 2026 The judge also said that Nine PBS must find a third party, such as a former OSS worker, who can help retrieve the data within 30 days and without sharing or corrupting data belonging to other OSS clients. — Scharon Harding, ArsTechnica, 14 Aug. 2026 Validation rules, schema standards and completeness checks at the entry point prevent bad master data from corrupting everything downstream. — Jacqueline Destefano-Tangorra, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2026 Character also involves standing up to people who are bankrupting and corrupting this country. — CBS News, 31 May 2026 An early discussion about social contracts comes down to us in Plato’s dialogue Crito in which Socrates, condemned to death for allegedly corrupting the youth, refused an offer to escape from prison. — George G. Szpiro, Big Think, 9 Apr. 2026 Meanwhile, the Pima County Sheriff Office investigating Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance is facing troubles of its own, as a former sheriff has accused current leadership of ‘corrupting’ the crime scene, and a deputy has been arrested and fired on a kidnapping charge. — Giulia Carbonaro, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Mar. 2026 For Hildegard of Bingen, the German mystic, scientist, composer, and philosopher, women’s maternal bodies were not corrupting and degrading, but strong, nurturing, and creative. — Literary Hub, 18 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for corrupting
  1. decomposing
  2. degrading
  3. bribing
  4. disintegrating
  5. subverting
  6. seducing
  7. decaying
  8. weakening
Verb
  • After receiving a complaint, police officers and a state regulator found more than 50 decomposing bodies at South Chicago Chapel in the city’s South Deering neighborhood.
    — Armando L. Sanchez, Chicago Tribune, 31 Aug. 2026
  • As excavations for the foundation got underway, bones and decomposing bodies were found, releasing a horrid odor and spreading yellow fever across the island.
    — Victoria Davies, Rolling Stone, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of decomposing
Verb
  • For instance, excess ions fail to enter the graphite quickly enough and form performance-degrading metallic deposits on the surface (lithium plating).
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 24 Aug. 2026
  • The Tate brothers built a global following, became extremely wealthy, and gained cultural and political influence by degrading and harming women.
    — Jodi Bondi Norgaard, Chicago Tribune, 24 Aug. 2026
Definition of degrading
Verb
  • At a press conference Thursday afternoon, LeVota denied the allegations but identified Legislator DaRon McGee as the candidate that federal prosecutors are accusing LeVota of bribing.
    — Ilana Arougheti, Kansas City Star, 8 Aug. 2026
  • Rand Paul, in particular, seems bent on getting Fauci prosecuted for allegedly bribing and coercing intelligence officials to aid in his cover-up.
    — Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 28 July 2026
Definition of bribing
Verb
  • With all the rain from storms recently, our streets and roads are disintegrating faster.
    — Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 23 Aug. 2026
  • In just four years, Keegan had spurred a disintegrating club into a united entity known for its energy and style, cherished as the ‘Entertainers’.
    — Michael Walker, New York Times, 22 Aug. 2026
Definition of disintegrating
Verb
  • The film’s procedural aspect ticks along just fine, holding the attention without subverting expectations, and carried by actors who, much like the detectives in this case, are ultra-capable professionals with no inclination to go rogue on us.
    — Guy Lodge, Variety, 28 Aug. 2026
  • The show also pokes fun at the late 1990s and early 2000s liberal cultural consensus that was upheld in other popular culture of the time while also both replicating and subverting stereotypes of suburban Southern white Americans.
    — Jordana Rosenfeld, Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Aug. 2026
Definition of subverting
Verb
  • Still, with more than 40,000 industry jobs lost in the past few years, soundstages and vendor storefronts sitting empty, and lucrative overseas incentives seducing even more production away, things are bleak in town right now.
    — Dominic Patten, Deadline, 6 Aug. 2026
  • The young women acted as underground assassins, seducing Nazi officers, luring them into the woods and killing them.
    — Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 28 July 2026
Definition of seducing
Verb
  • Call to action In September 2025, NASA put out a call to action to save Swift, whose orbit was decaying quickly due to high solar activity.
    — Leonard David, Space.com, 27 Aug. 2026
  • The $30-million mission aimed to raise Swift from a rapidly decaying orbit worsened by intense solar activity, preserving a telescope that spent two decades tracking cosmic explosions.
    — Marcia Dunn, Los Angeles Times, 23 Aug. 2026
Definition of decaying
Verb
  • Throughout this year, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been weakening the Navy’s leadership by blocking the promotion of nearly 20 admirals.
    — Andrea N. Goldstein, The Atlantic, 28 Aug. 2026
  • Wheat futures hit their highest level in more than three years as the war in Ukraine strained supplies, further weakening the global food system.
    — Jeronimo Gonzalez, semafor.com, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of weakening

Browse Nearby Words

corruptible
corrupting
corruption
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Cite this Entry

“Corrupting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/corrupting. Accessed 5 Sep. 2026.

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