Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Formerly, one who bought or sold the parliamentary representation of an English borough.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who buys or sells the parliamentary seats of boroughs.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One who buys or sells the
parliamentary seats ofboroughs .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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-- A good fellow is one who attends the Fox-dinners, who goes to the Indies to purchase independence, and would rather encounter a buffalo than a boroughmonger.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 12, No. 346, December 13, 1828 Various
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A mere handful as to number, and in average talent very much on a level with the mass of their colleagues; -- counting in their ranks no orator, or minister, or boroughmonger; -- they commanded the ear of the House, and exerted on its proceedings an influence, the secret of which those who have studied the Parliamentary history of the period find it only too easy to understand.
Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay Volume 1 George Otto Trevelyan 1883
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a conscientious man, who was always doing good, in silence and secrecy, and denounced as a boroughmonger, had never sold a seat in his life, and was always looking out for able men of character to introduce them to public affairs.
Endymion Benjamin Disraeli 1842
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