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To secretly get someone to commit a crime for you — above all, to bribe or pressure a witness into lying under oath. This is a narrow legal word, and it almost always appears in the fixed phrase *to suborn a witness* or *to suborn perjury*. The key idea is that you do not tell the lie yourself; you arrange for someone else to tell it, usually with money, a favour, or a threat. That secondhand quality is the whole point of the word. It can stretch a little wider — to suborn an official, to suborn a — but it stays inside the world of courts, corruption, and crime. Some writers use it loosely for corrupting anything ('technology suborned to advertising'), and that is a stylish, rather literary extension rather than the core meaning. You will meet it in legal dramas, news reports about trials, and older novels, but almost never in speech. It is a regular verb: suborn, suborned, suborning. Note it is not the same as simply *persuading* someone; a crime has to be involved.
教唆（作偽證）、買通（證人）；法律用語
組成From Latin subōrnāre: sub- 'under, secretly' + ōrnāre 'to equip, to furnish, to fit out' — the same ōrnāre behind ornament. So the original picture is 'to fit someone out secretly', to quietly supply them with what they need for the job. English took it through Old French suborner.
同家族的字
- ornamentsame Latin ornare 'to equip, adorn'
- adornad- 'to' + ornare — the same 'furnish, decorate' root
- subornationthe noun formed from it
原始詞典資料8 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
subornverb/səˈbɔːn/
- 1
To induce (someone) to commit an unlawful or malicious act, especially in a corrupt manner.
- Till thou to ſpit the venome of thy ſpite, / Subornedſt Cupid how he ſoone might ſlay me, / Abandoning his bowe and arrowes quite, / You laid his priuie complot to betray me; […]
- [H]ee ſuborneth one named Saulus and the ſouldiers of the Ievves to follovv the Gothes hard at the heeles, vvho killing ſome thouſands of them, oportunitie beeing offered, might by that meanes exaſperat at the mindes of the people and mooue them to breake the league.
- 2
To induce (someone) to commit an unlawful or malicious act, especially in a corrupt manner.
- [Y]ou shall finde their tongues chayned to another mans trencher, and as it were, Knights of the Post, suborned to say, sweare and stare the uttermost they can, as those that passe not what they say, nor with what face they say it, so they say no truth.
- By heauen (fond vvretch) yͧ knovvſt not vvhat thou ſpeak'ſt, / Or elſe thou art ſuborn'd againſt his honor / In hatefull practiſe: […]
- 3
To achieve (some result; specifically, perjury) in a corrupt manner.
- [U]pon ſingle Perjuries ſuborned by themſelves they condemned Men unheard, and ſold their Eſtates vvithout ſuffering them to ſpeak for themſelves— […]
- [F]or my part, I vvould as ſoon ſuborn an Evidence at an Aſſize, as a Vote at an Election.
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archaicTo procure or provide (something) secretly and often in a dishonest manner.
- In a golden bowl / She then suborn'd a potion, in her soul / Deform'd things thinking; for amidst the wine / She mix'd her man-transforming medicine; […]
- Firm we ſubſiſt, yet poſſible to ſwerve, / Since Reaſon not impoſſibly may meet / Some ſpecious object by the Foe ſubornd, […]
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archaicTo make use of (something), especially for corrupt or dishonest reasons.
- Nor is he onely content to ſuborne Divine Juſtice in his cenſure of vvhat is paſt, but he aſſumes the perſon of Chriſt himſelf to prognoſticate over us vvhat he vviſhes vvould come.
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obsoleteTo aid, assist, or support (something).
- And fell much wood, that all night we may keep / Plenty of fires, even till the light bring forth the lovely morn; / And let their brightness glaze the skies, that night may not suborn / The Greeks' escape, […]
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obsoleteTo furnish or provide (something).
- And ſurely if the purpoſe be in good earneſt not to vvrite at leaſure that vvhich mẽ [men] may read at leaſure, but really to inſtruct and ſuborne Action and actiue life, theſe Georgickes of the mind concerning the huſbãdry & tillage thereof, are no leſſe vvorthy thẽ the heroical deſcriptiõs of vertue, duty, & felicity vvherfore the maine & primitiue diuiſion of Morall knovvledge ſeemeth to be into the Exemplar or Platforme of Good, and the Regiment or Culture of the mind; […]
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obsoleteTo substitute (a thing) for something else, especially secretly and often in a dishonest manner.
- I wiſh unto thee all ſuperabundant increaſe of the ſingular gifts of abſurditie and vaine glory: […] in ſupplanting and ſetting aſide the true children of the Engliſh, and ſuborning inkehorne changlings in their ſteade; […]
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。