cor·rupt / kəˈrəpt/ • adj. 1. having or showing a willingness to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain. ∎  evil or morally depraved. ∎ archaic (of organic or inorganic matter) in a state of decay; rotten or putrid.2. (of a text or manuscript) debased or made unreliable by errors or alterations. ∎  (of a computer database or program) having errors introduced.• v. [tr.] 1. cause to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain. ∎  cause to become morally depraved. ∎ archaic infect; contaminate.2. (often be corrupted) change or debase by making errors or unintentional alterations: Epicurus's teachings have since been much corrupted. ∎  cause errors to appear in (a computer program or database): a program that has somehow corrupted your system files.DERIVATIVES: cor·rupt·er n.cor·rupt·i·bil·i·ty / kəˌrəptəˈbilitē/ n.cor·rupt·i·ble adj.cor·rup·tive / -tiv/ adj.cor·rupt·ly adv.

corrupt No longer in a proper state (or, as a verb, to cause to be no longer in a proper state). The term is most commonly used in connection with data that is being stored or transmitted: corrupt data when recovered or received has been altered from the version that was originally stored or transmitted. Since corrupt data may either be of little use, or may be positively harmful if used, most systems that store or transmit data include mechanisms to detect the presence of corruption, and to allow the original data to be recovered.

corrupt †as pp. corrupted; unsound, rotten, debased, venal. XIV. — OF. corrupt or L. corruptus, pp. of corrumpere destroy, ruin, falsify, seduce, f. COR- + rumpere break (see RUPTURE).
Hence corrupt vb. XIV. So corruption XIV. — (O)F. — L.