Idiom
grease payment
Meaning
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 adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The clerk asked for a grease payment to process the form quickly.”
“You often need a grease payment to get your electricity connected faster.”
“To ensure the shipment cleared customs without further delay, the manager authorized a small grease payment to the local official.”
“The truck driver knew he had to offer a grease payment at the border if he wanted to reach the market before his fruit spoiled.”
“While the company maintained a strict policy against corruption, the local representative argued that a modest grease payment was an unavoidable necessity to secure the permit in that region.”
Examples
simple
“The clerk asked for a grease payment to process the form quickly.”
“You often need a grease payment to get your electricity connected faster.”
contextual
“To ensure the shipment cleared customs without further delay, the manager authorized a small grease payment to the local official.”
“The truck driver knew he had to offer a grease payment at the border if he wanted to reach the market before his fruit spoiled.”
complex
“While the company maintained a strict policy against corruption, the local representative argued that a modest grease payment was an unavoidable necessity to secure the permit in that region.”
Origin
From grease + payment. The term follows the imagery of a mechanical lubricant, suggesting that a small sum applied to a minor official facilitates the smooth and rapid movement of a bureaucratic process that might otherwise remain stationary.
Key words
Related idioms
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