Definition

Noun: A person who gives or offers money, gifts, or other favors to someone in a position of power or trust to influence that person's actions or decisions dishonestly. A briber incites someone to commit a wrongful act, typically a breach of trust or law, through payment or other inducement.

Usage

The term "briber" specifically identifies the person who initiates and provides the bribe. It is used in legal, journalistic, and formal contexts to describe the guilty party in a corrupt transaction. The word focuses on the act of corrupting another.

Examples

• The investigation aimed to identify both the briber who offered the money and the official who accepted it.
• The law punishes the briber as severely as the person being bribed.
• As the briber, he was found guilty of attempting to corrupt a public official.

Advanced Usage

• "The briber and the bribed": A common phrase pairing the two parties involved in a corrupt act, emphasizing shared culpability.
  • The scandal implicated both the briber and the bribed.
• "Willing briber": Emphasizes that the act was done knowingly and intentionally, without coercion.
  • The contractor was a willing briber, seeking an unfair advantage.

Variants and Related Words

• Bribe (noun/verb): The thing offered (noun) or the act of offering it (verb).
  • He offered a bribe. He tried to bribe the officer.
• Bribery (noun): The overall crime or practice of offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting bribes.
  • He was charged with bribery.

Synonyms

• Corrupter: One who causes others to act dishonestly.
• Suborner (legal): One who induces someone to commit an unlawful act, especially perjury.

Antonyms

• Whistleblower: A person who exposes wrongdoing, such as bribery.

Related Phrases

• To offer a bribe: The action performed by a briber.
  • He was arrested for offering a bribe to a judge.
• On the take (idiomatic, usually for the recipient): Willing to accept bribes.
  • They discovered the official was on the take.

Noun

1. someone who pays (or otherwise incites) you to commit a wrongful act