Grease One's Palms (Verb)
Meaning
Make illegal payments to in exchange for favors or influence; "This judge can be bought".
Classification
Verbs of buying, selling, owning.
Examples
- To grease one's palms, the corrupt business owner offered the government official a large sum of money in exchange for a favorable contract.
- The politician accused her opponent of attempting to grease the palms of local officials to gain their endorsement.
- In order to get out of the traffic ticket, the driver tried to grease the palm of the police officer by offering him money.
- After being accused of trying to grease the palms of the jury, the defendant was found guilty of jury tampering.
- The whistleblower's testimony revealed that several high-ranking officials had been greasing the palms of lawmakers to influence their votes.