■ compromise

1) “不坚持（某信念、标准或主张）”（是瞬时动作，第四类动词）。

• The government is said to have compromised its principles.政府被指称放弃了原则。
• Occasionally, we must compromise on-time operations to guarantee safe travel.有时候我们必须为了保证旅途安全而放松准时运行。

2) 宾语是人，负面的意义是“损害某人的正直形象”、“拉某人下水”、“使某人不得不勉强做某事”（也是瞬时动作，属第四类动词）。

• He vowed not to be lured into any associations that might compromise him.他立誓不会被引诱参加任何可能损害他形象的团体。

To compromise oneself 是“自己把自己套紧”、“自损形象”。

• It is difficult to establish in what way letters of Bismarck to Lassalle also got into this chest. It is true that they are very few, and their contents also are of no kind of interest. It is clear that Bismarck did not wish to compromise himself in any way. He preferred to "listen," and if he uttered his opinion, it was only orally, face to face, without witnesses.很难查明俾斯麦给拉萨尔的信件是如何到了这个箱子里的。信件的确很少，内容也无关紧要。显然，俾斯麦丝毫不想把自己套住。他主要是“听着”，即使发表意见，也只是当面口头说出，不愿有人旁证。
• Why did such an experienced politician compromise himself and allow himself to be manipulated by sleazy lobbyists?为什么这样一个经验丰富的政治家竟然这样自我作贱，任下流的游说者摆弄呢？

但是也可以有正面的意义，表示关系之难解难分。

• (She had) a bundle of letters to prove how deeply the young man had compromised himself. (Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage)她有一批信件，可以证明这个青年人同她关系多深。

由此产生的过去分词 compromised 已经接近一般的形容词，意思是“处境狼狈”、“形象不佳”。

• Has there ever been a summit at which all of the leaders were so weak, so compromised, so unpopular, or so discredited?与会的领导人全都如此软弱，如此狼狈，如此声名不佳，如此失信于民，这样的高峰会议，难道以往有过吗？

3) “连累”、“危及”、“损害”。

• A lone US ambassador compromised America's hunt for Osama bin Laden in Pakistan for more than two years, The New York Sun has learned. 《纽约太阳报》获悉，单单一名美国大使，就损害了美国在巴基斯坦搜捕本·拉登的工作达两年之久。
• Blanche saw that it was hopeless—saw that she had compromised her own interests by her own headlong act.(Wilkie Collins, Man and Wife)布朗希看到事情没有希望了，她看到自己那种一头栽的鲁莽举动已经使自己的利益受到了损害。
• He tried to devise a plan by means of which he might gain his ends without being compromised himself.(Alexandre Dumas, The Black Tulip)他努力要想出一个妙计，既能达到目的，又不损及自己。

现在谈到风行的“骇客攻击”、“网上犯罪”、“身份盗窃”时，往往就出现 compromise 这个及物动词和它的形容词化了的过去分词 compromised，中文译法也不统一，一般有“攻击”、“攻陷”、“受威胁”（过去分词）、“已经泄密”（过去分词）等等。

• compromised key已泄密的密钥，被盗取的密钥
• compromised Visa accounts被盗取的维萨信用卡账户
• compromised password已泄密的密码
• A single compromised account on a server could also be used to compromise the domain controller.一个伺服器上如果有一个账户被盗取，它就可以用来波及域名的控制器。

再看下面例句：

• The state of California has warned residents that their personal data may have been stolen from computers at the University of California, Berkeley, after a database used by researchers there was compromised by hackers. Investigators know a malicious hacker exploited a vulnerability in "commercially available database software" and compromised the computer.加利福尼亚州警告居民，加州大学伯克利分校研究人员使用的一个数据库被骇客攻陷，因此他们的个人资料可能已经被盗出电脑。调查人员已经查出，一个恶意的骇客利用“商业上可以使用的数据库软件”，攻陷了电脑。

人体的机能如果受损，也是 compromised，例如免疫机能受损，可以用复合形容词 immunocompromised 来表示 (= having a weakened immune system)。

又如在秘密的地下工作中，某人或某地址如果暴露了，与之联系会有危险，也说该人或该地址是 compromised 的。“涉嫌文件”是 compromising papers。