Venal

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Venal \Ve"nal\ (v[=e]"nal), a. [L. vena a vein.]
     Of or pertaining to veins; venous; as, venal blood. [R.]
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:



  Venal \Ve"nal\, a. [L. venalis, from venus sale; akin to Gr.
     'w^nos price, Skr. vasna: cf. F. v['e]nal.]
     Capable of being bought or obtained for money or other
     valuable consideration; made matter of trade or barter; held
     for sale; salable; mercenary; purchasable; hireling; as,
     venal services. " Paid court to venal beauties." --Macaulay.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           The venal cry and prepared vote of a passive senate.
                                                    --Burke.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Mercenary; hireling; vendible.
  
     Usage: {Venal}, {Mercenary}. One is mercenary who is either
            actually a hireling (as, mercenary soldiers, a
            mercenary judge, etc.), or is governed by a sordid
            love of gain; hence, we speak of mercenary motives, a
            mercenary marriage, etc. Venal goes further, and
            supposes either an actual purchase, or a readiness to
            be purchased, which places a person or thing wholly in
            the power of the purchaser; as, a venal press. Brissot
            played ingeniously on the latter word in his
            celebrated saying, " My pen is venal that it may not
            be mercenary," meaning that he wrote books, and sold
            them to the publishers, in order to avoid the
            necessity of being the hireling of any political
            party.
            [1913 Webster]
  
                  Thus needy wits a vile revenue made,
                  And verse became a mercenary trade. --Dryden.
            [1913 Webster]
  
                  This verse be thine, my friend, nor thou refuse
                  This, from no venal or ungrateful muse. --Pope.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  venal
       adj : capable of being corrupted; "corruptible judges"; "dishonest
             politicians"; "a purchasable senator"; "a venal police
             officer" [syn: {corruptible}, {bribable}, {dishonest},
             {purchasable}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  66 Moby Thesaurus words for "venal":
     a hog for, acquisitive, all-devouring, approachable, avaricious,
     avid, bent, bottomless, bribable, bribeable, buyable, corrupt,
     corruptible, coveting, covetous, crooked, devouring, dishonorable,
     esurient, fixable, flagitious, gluttonous, gobbling, grabby,
     grasping, greedy, hack, hireling, hoggish, ignoble, infamous,
     iniquitous, insatiable, insatiate, limitless, mercenary, miserly,
     money-hungry, money-mad, nefarious, omnivorous, on the pad,
     on the take, overgreedy, paid, piggish, purchasable, quenchless,
     rapacious, ravening, ravenous, slakeless, sordid, swinish,
     unappeasable, unappeased, unethical, unprincipled, unquenchable,
     unsated, unsatisfied, unscrupulous, unslakeable, unslaked, vicious,
     voracious
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  VENAL. Something that is bought. The term is generally applied in a bad 
  sense; as, a venal office is an office which has been purchased.