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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Suborn

Suborn \Sub*orn"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Suborned; p. pr. & vb. n. Suborning.] [F. suborner, L. subornare; sub under, secretly + ornare to furnish, provide, equip, adorn. See Ornament.]

  1. (Law) To procure or cause to take a false oath amounting to perjury, such oath being actually taken.
    --Sir W. O. Russell.

  2. To procure privately, or by collusion; to procure by indirect means; to incite secretly; to instigate.

    Thou art suborned against his honor.
    --Shak.

    Those who by despair suborn their death.
    --Dryden.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
suborn

"to procure unlawfully, to bribe to accomplish a wicked purpose, especially to induce a witness to perjury, "to lure (someone) to commit a crime," 1530s, from Middle French suborner "seduce, instigate, bribe" (13c.) and directly from Latin subornare "employ as a secret agent, incite secretly," originally "equip, fit out, furnish," from sub "under, secretly" (see sub-) + ornare "equip," related to ordo "order" (see order (n.)). Related: Suborned; suborning.\n

Wiktionary
suborn

vb. 1 (context transitive English) To induce to commit an unlawful or malicious act, or to commit perjury (16th c.) 2 (context transitive English) To procure privately, or by collusion; to incite secretly; to instigate.

WordNet
suborn
  1. v. incite to commit a crime or an evil deed; "He suborned his butler to cover up the murder of his wife"

  2. procure (false testimony or perjury)

  3. induce to commit perjury or give false testimony; "The President tried to suborn false witnesses"

Usage examples of "suborn".

Monica Lewinsky or others suborned perjury, obstructed justice, intimidated witnesses or otherwise violated federal law.

He handled the traitor contemptuously as a perjured, suborned witness, a false servant, a man who, as he proceeded to show, was a scoundrel steeped in crime, whose word was utterly worthless, and who, no doubt, had been bought to bring these charges against his sometime master.

These are the people who angrily defended a president who perjured himself, hid evidence, suborned perjury, was held in contempt by a federal court, was disbarred by the Supreme Court, and lied to his party, his staff, his wife, and the nation.

I have not yet established if Captain Thorne was actually suborned, or merely taken in by my fellow-clone.

Theamh and Morat and whoever else you claim to have suborned, staged the entire thing simply to give you the chance to go north, where you would be able to work without hindrance.

As for the indispensable cleric, not the wildest optimist could suppose that the Reverend William Tuxted, who happened to be the only clergyman with whom Selina was well acquainted, could be suborned by any means whatsoever into performing his part in the affair.

Letty, swelling with wrath, could not afterwards be persuaded that Cardross had not suborned the blameless cleric into choosing a text aimed directly at herself.

Risa, my late wife was suborned by her unfortunately not-late aunt to serve as an in-House verifier.

White, while surveilling Cassese inside a cocktail lounge, overheard him attempting to suborn a minor female into prostitution.

Abdul Majid in this case leaves in my mind a grave suspicion of a conspiracy to defeat the end of justice by the suborning of Abdul Majid to commit perjury in the interests of the defence.

Through the altar-room door, he heard the soft sounds of his cook-priest and her suborn as they readied midevening sacrament.

And three traitorous officers, reinforced by a handful of men-at-arms they had suborned to their cause, had caught me alone, away from my Moldavian bodyguard.

We ran a drug recovery crashpad as a front, suborned teenyboppers into prostitution, coerced male patients into phone sales duty and kept them motivated with Benzedrine-laced espressoall of which peaked at twenty-four grand jury bills busted down to three indictments apiece.

We ran a drug recovery crashpad as a front, suborned teenyboppers into prostitution, coerced male patients into phone sales duty and kept them motivated with Benzedrine-laced espresso-all of which peaked at twenty-four grand jury bills busted down to three indictments apiece.

Why, that was six weeks ago, and here we have the Comandante suborning one Marcia, a dragoon, to abduct Mrs.