lubrication payment
A bribe or extorted money, usually relatively small in amount, provided to a low-level…A bribe or extorted money, usually relatively small in amount, provided to a low-level government official or business person, in order to expedite a business decision, shipment, or other transaction, especially in a country where such payments are not unusual.
Meaning
1 senses(euphemistic, idiomatic)A bribe or extorted money, usually relatively small in amount, provided to a low-level government official or business person, in order to expedite a business decision, shipment, or other transaction, especially in a country where such payments are not unusual.
Schmiergeld
Translations
2 languagesBy meaning 1
Origin
By a metaphor in which facilitating human socioeconomic interaction is portrayed as lubricBy a metaphor in which facilitating human socioeconomic interaction is portrayed as lubricating machinery (e.g., oiling the gears, greasing the wheels); in this regard, compare also social lubricant.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: lubrication payments| Singular | lubrication payment |
|---|---|
| Plural | lubrication payments |
regular
Synonyms
4 synonymsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.