suborn (suborn)

t. [ Evill thinges, being decked and suborned with the gay attyre of goodly woordes, may easely deceave. Spenser , State of Ireland. 2. To furnish or procure unlawfully; procure by indirect means. So men oppre ed, when weary of their breath, Throw off the burden, and suborn their death. Dryden, Pal, and Arc., iii. 1039. 3. To bribe or unlawfully procure to some act of wickedne -specifically, in law, to giving false testimony; induce, as a witne , to perjury. He had put to death two of the kynges which were the chiefe autours of this newe reuolte, and had suborned Guarionexius and the other kynges to attempte the same. Peter Martyr (tr. in Eden's First Books on America, ed. (Arber, p. 84). By heaven, fond wretch, thou know'st not what thou speak'st; Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour In hateful practice. Shak., M. for M., v. 1. 106. It was he indeed Suborned us to the calumny. B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1. A faithle clerk, who had been suborned to betray their consultations, was promptly punished. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., I. 148. To bribe a trustee, as such, is in fact neither more nor le than to suborn him to be guilty of a breach or an abuse of trust. Bentham, Introd. to Morals and Legislation, [xvi. 27, note &