# lubrication payment

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/lubrication-payment
Updated: 2026-08-10

## 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.

## Examples

- He gave the clerk a small lubrication payment to speed up his permit.
- The driver offered a small lubrication payment to the border guard to ensure his shipment cleared customs without further delay.
- The building contractor realized that a small lubrication payment to the inspector was the only way to get the electricity turned on before the grand opening.
- While the company officially maintained a strict anti-corruption policy, local managers often found that a modest lubrication payment was the only way to navigate the bureaucratic gridlock.

## Origin

From a mid-20th-century metaphor in which the facilitation of human socioeconomic interaction is portrayed as the lubrication of machinery. The term equates the easing of bureaucratic or social friction to oiling gears or greasing wheels, adopting the mechanical imagery found in the related phrase social lubricant.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.