How Dirty Is 'Greasing Someone's Palm'? — VOA Learning English
Topics: суспільство
Beginning
And now, Words and Their Stories, from VOA Learning English.
On this program we explore words and expressions in the English language. We give examples and notes on usage.
Today we talk about something that sounds dirty because it is – to grease someone’s palm.
When we grease someone’s palm, we give them money, or something else valuable, to get what we want. Simply put, it is an act of bribery. For example, if someone greases a government official's palm, the person secretly gives money to the official in order to get something they want.
You may also hear this expression used with the word oil instead of grease.
Grease and oil help some machines work smoothly. Grease and oil are both black,…
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