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Glite Dictionary
kickback

kickback

38 8.3
An illegal payment that someone gives to get a contract or official job
  • noun
  • /ˈkɪkˌbæk/
translation icon : soborno
  • It's illegal for doctors to take kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies for prescribing their drugs.
  • receive a kickback
  • gifts and kickbacks

You got a portion of fines and you also got immense kickbacks from local bootleggers.

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Examples

  • If convicted on the kickback charges alone, Lopez faces up to 20 years in prison.

    Blog text (22)

  • Farrow was implicated in the scandal as well; he had received a kickback of two thousand dollars.

    Academic text (2011)

  • But weeks passed and I got no kickback, so I was going to tell them.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Do you know what kind of kickback the designers get from these?

  • - Someone must have paid kickbacks to him.

    Sacrifice (2011)

  • I wonder what kickbacks were involved.

    The Towering Inferno (1974)

  • Some, no doubt, were offered kickbacks, which is a federal and state felony.

    Blog text (19)

  • Other stories involved employee theft, kickbacks to vendors, and cutting corners on product quality.

    Academic text (1995)

  • So, you're saying he's getting rich, he's taking kickbacks on all this?

    Motherless Brooklyn (2019)

  • During the performance of the contract, Laguna's officers and employees received kickbacks for awarding subcontracts, which the government began investigating in January 2008.

    Academic text (2017)

Synonyms

bribery
vskickback
74 4.2

Giving money or gifts to persuade someone to do dishonest things

is the specific payment form of the general practice of offering money
payoff
vskickback
31 5.0

Money given secretly to influence someone in power

is a hidden payment given in return for arranging a deal or appointment

How Large

kickback
38 8.3

Surface Forms

kickback singular
kickbacks plural

Morphology

kickback = kick back (opaque) = back + kick

Although built from 'kick' + 'back' (the phrasal verb 'kick back'), the sense 'illicit payment/bribe' is idiomatic and not directly deducible from the literal parts.

Etymology

Kickback comes from putting kick and back together; it first described a physical 'kick' that pushes something back, like a gun giving a strong push backward. A helpful way to remember the bribe meaning is to think of money being 'kicked back'—'returned secretly' to someone who helped make a deal, which is why a kickback is an illegal payment.