Crossword clues for venality
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Venality \Ve*nal"i*ty\, n. [L. venalitas: cf. F. v['e]nalit['e].] The quality or state of being venal, or purchasable; mercenariness; prostitution of talents, offices, or services, for money or reward; as, the venality of a corrupt court; the venality of an official.
Complaints of Roman venality became louder.
--Milton.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1610s, from French vénalité or directly from Late Latin venalitatem (nominative venalitas) "capability of being bought," from Latin venalis "capable of being bought" (see venal).
Wiktionary
n. The fact or state of being for sale, especially with reference to bribes or corruption.
WordNet
n. prostitution of talents or offices or services for reward
Wikipedia
Venality is a vice associated with being bribeable, cruel, selfish, or of selling one's services or power, especially when people are intended to act in an decent way instead. In its most recognizable form, dishonesty, venality causes people to lie and steal for their own personal advantage, and is related to bribery and nepotism, among other vices.
Usage examples of "venality".
His taste for luxury extended to everything but ministers, for he inherited from his father and kept in office a shady group, neither capable nor honest, who were despised by the nobles because they were of common birth and hated by the bourgeois for their avarice and venality.
Westminster Henry complained before the bishops of the lenience and venality of the ecclesiastical courts, and of the character of the judges.
There was no attempt, however, to prove corruption, and the motion was rejected, as unfair in its attempt to deprive individuals of the rights of British subjects, on the mere presumption of venality.
And yet so low are they now reduced, by the injustice of magistrates and the venality of collectors, that many of their members, renouncing their dignity and their country, have taken refuge in distant and obscure exile.
He was a Websterian figure, with the venality of the great Daniel in all its pompous dignity modernized--and correspondingly expanded.
I can only surmise how much Bowes realized out of the prisoners by his venality, but I feel sure that it could not have been less than three thousand dollars, and I would not be astonished to learn that it was ten thousand dollars in green.
When treason was abetted by stupidity, venality, and petty bickering, he saw the patriot's duty as clear: to scratch and claw and connive one's way to the place where one's personal abilities could make the vital difference.
Ryan reproached himself for the venality of the thought, but he'd come to this newly dreadful place as some sort of leadership demonstration, parading himself before the TV cameras as though he knew what he was about—and that was a lie.
Watergate and, most recently, the Iran-Contra affair exhibit those mortal sins of venality and immorality which are the signs of advancing evil.
I was once infatuated with a woman who was the poster girl for venality.
Ziegenhalss recounts some truly astonishing examples of the intellect's debasement, venality, and self-betrayal during that period.
I will go to any lengths, indulge in all venalities, to stop this planet from blowing itself up.
Priests of various rites had begun whittling away at rivals by betraying their venalities, corruptions, and sins.
I considered the petty venality of triple-spacing paperwork to maximize buck-a-page Xeroxing, and wanted to vomit.