Kickback

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkɪkbæk/

Definitions

1. A payment or benefit secretly returned to someone in exchange for a favor or contract award, often involving corruption or bribery
2. A backdoor payment offered to an individual as a reward for their assistance in a corrupt deal or arrangement is often seen as unethical or illegal
3. A covert payment made to an individual as a reward for facilitating a deal or contract often involves unethical behavior and corruption

Etymology: Kickback is built from the verb "kick back," meaning to return something or to pay back, combined with the back-formation logic that turns a phrasal verb into a noun. The verb's sense of "kicking back" money goes back to the idea of a sum being pushed or thrown back toward its source, a physical image of a payment flowing in the opposite direction from the one expected. The sense that matters today is the corrupt one: a secret share of money handed back to whoever granted a contract or favor. The noun carries that meaning of an illicit cut rather than a plain refund, which is why it is most often heard in discussions of bribery, procurement, and public office.

Synonyms: rebate, return

Antonyms: penalty