Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a venal manner; mercenarily.

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

  • adverb In a venal manner.

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

  • adverb In a venal fashion; mercenarily or in a manner subject to corruption.

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

  • adverb in a corrupt and deceitful manner

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

venal +‎ -ly

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word venally.

Examples

  • And the most venally ambitious of the criminally insane manage to scramble to the top.

    Will Durst: The Delta of Denial Will Durst 2011

  • And the most venally ambitious of the criminally insane manage to scramble to the top.

    Will Durst: The Delta of Denial Will Durst 2011

  • Avant-garde anti-realists probably err in assuming that realist novelists are just complacently or venally recycling convention; my experience is that many intelligent novelists are painfully aware of their bated means, their limitations and timidities and uncertainties, and look with writhing admiration at writers like Beckett or Saramago or Bernhard or David Foster Wallace, who seem to have discovered new fictional languages.

    Progress Walter Jon Williams 2010

  • Republicans and "Blue Dog" Democrats alike have finally done something that does more than just venally and verbally attack the Obama Administration.

    Matthew Anderson: "Let's Get America Working Again" 2010

  • Republicans and "Blue Dog" Democrats alike have finally done something that does more than just venally and verbally attack the Obama Administration.

    Matthew Anderson: "Let's Get America Working Again" Matthew Anderson 2010

  • Aside from being known for its corrupt politics and even more venally corrupt politicians, it is also know as the city of monster pot holes.

    Crashed into the Mercedes C-Class sedan, the Smart "went airborne and spun around one and a half times." Ann Althouse 2009

  • Aside from being known for its corrupt politics and even more venally corrupt politicians, it is also know as the city of monster pot holes.

    Crashed into the Mercedes C-Class sedan, the Smart "went airborne and spun around one and a half times." Ann Althouse 2009

  • If you think that this mob in power wouldn't orchestrate everyone willing politically or venally motivated quack to toe the line to save their asses with promises as to the future in regard to the research facilities and personal fortunes, then you need to study history more closely.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009

  • Organization after organization, business after business, motivated citizen after motivated citizen are knocking on every door conceivable with ideas for funding that range from great through good to indifferent to bad all the way to simply venally corrupt.

    A. Siegel: Massively Efficient Path to Save the Economy 2009

  • On the Assassination of a Woman yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'On the Assassination of a Woman'; yahooBuzzArticleSummary = 'Article: May the deaths and maimings of our American daughters shock us into remembering how precious all our children\'s lives are, never to be spent recklessly or venally.

    On the Assassination of a Woman 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.