Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An often secret action taken by two or more parties to achieve an illegal or improper purpose.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Secret agreement for a fraudulent or harmful purpose; a secret or crafty understanding for unworthy purposes.
  • noun Specifically, in law, a secret understanding between two or more persons to act or proceed as if adversely or at. variance with, or in apparent defiance of, one another's rights, in order to prejudice a third person or to obtain a remedy which could not as well be obtained by open concurrence.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A secret agreement and cooperation for a fraudulent or deceitful purpose; a playing into each other's hands; deceit; fraud; cunning.
  • noun (Law) An agreement between two or more persons to defraud a person of his rights, by the forms of law, or to obtain an object forbidden by law.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A secret agreement for an illegal purpose; conspiracy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun secret agreement
  • noun agreement on a secret plot

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Latin collūsiō, collūsiōn-, from collūsus, past participle of collūdere, to collude; see collude.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Dated from the 14th Century CE; from Old French collusion, from Latin collusionem ("act of colluding").

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Examples

  • As news about the memo spread, critics of Hall and the school board quickly denounced what they described as collusion between the district and the chamber.

    ajc.com - News 2010

  • As news about the memo spread, critics of Hall and the school board quickly denounced what they described as collusion between the district and the chamber.

    ajc.com - News 2010

  • Last week the superpower-defying website, in collusion with unknown U.S. military personnel, posted 391,832 field reports from Iraq -- SIGACTs, in military-speak, or significant actions in the war -- including the checkpoint incident above.

    Robert Koehler: Defying a Superpower Robert Koehler 2010

  • I married and had a child early, my job was extremely taxing, and I was certainly in collusion with all the demands that rained down.

    Life Begins At 40 « Tales from the Reading Room 2009

  • Last week the superpower-defying website, in collusion with unknown U.S. military personnel, posted 391,832 field reports from Iraq -- SIGACTs, in military-speak, or significant actions in the war -- including the checkpoint incident above.

    Robert Koehler: Defying a Superpower Robert Koehler 2010

  • That Bella was in collusion with the Indian, and that Borg was to be murdered.

    CHAPTER 29 2010

  • 'You have public officials in collusion, practicing an illegal act that costs taxpayers money,' McDonough said in an interview Tuesday.

    First Click, Maryland:Fact-checking Rep. Kratovil's claim on tax hike Aaron C. Davis 2010

  • Farmers are serfs, working for the brokers, who set prices in collusion with the Feds and Agribusiness suppliers.

    Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Utterly Without Shame 2010

  • What you have here is, you have public officials ... in collusion, practicing an illegal act that costs the taxpayers money.

    GOP lawmaker asks whether Montgomery College is breaking law Daniel de Vise 2010

  • These are vicious lies started by the coal and oil companies in collusion with the Bush Administration.

    Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Another Threat Debunked 2010

Comments

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  • the marker week

    June 25, 2010

  • "How is Palestine best defended? Is it by staying on the land, even if that staying involves collusion with the enemy to the extent that work must be sought in Israel for survival?" --Miriam Cooke, Arab Women Writers.

    September 9, 2012