n. inducement (as of a public official) by improper means (as bribery) to violate duty (as by commiting a felony); "he was held on charges of corruption and racketeering"

n. moral perversion; impairment of virtue and moral principles; "the luxury and corruption among the upper classes"; "moral degeneracy followed intellectual degeneration"; "its brothels, its opium parlors, its depravity"; "Rome had fallen into moral putrefaction"

n. lack of integrity or honesty (especially susceptibility to bribery); use of a position of trust for dishonest gain

n. decay of matter (as by rot or oxidation)

n. in a state of progressive putrefaction

n. [the act of being dishonest and illegal]