filibuster

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“
You need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, but a filibuster is a really costly thing to do.

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Definitions (16)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun The use of obstructionist tactics, especially prolonged speechmaking, for the purpose of delaying legislative action.
  2. noun An instance of the use of this delaying tactic.
  3. noun An adventurer who engages in a private military action in a foreign country.
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Examples (50)

  • Sixty votes are needed to override procedural moves to block legislation, known as a filibuster. —  BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition
  • Lieberman said that the filibuster is a "key" to stop such —  Think Progress
  • From 1919 to 1970, the filibuster was actually used about 2 times per Congressional Session. —  Dissident Voice
  • Rather than blaming Republicans for spurning Obama's gestures at bipartisanship or noting how excessive use of the filibuster is anti-democratic, the Post article praises the notion that these GOP tactics will force the administration to water down its health-care and energy plans. —  Consortiumnews.com
  • Now a filibuster is a 48 hour affair, there's no incentive for opposing sides to get together and forge an agreement. —  Cafferty File
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Spanish filibustero, freebooter, from French flibustier, from Dutch vrijbuiter, pirate; see freebooter.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Spanish filibustero (with inserted i in first syllable) (= Italian filibustiere), from French flibustier, earlier fribustier, a filibuster, bucaneer, freebooter (with s inserted, but orig. not pronounced—a common fact in 17th century F., after the analogy of words in which an original s was retained in spelling, though it had become silent in pronunciation); from Dutch vrijbueter (Kilian, 1598), now vrijbuiter, a freebooter, = English freebooter = Danish fribytter = Swedish fribytare = German freibeuter (the English, Danish, Swedish, and G. words being not independent formations, but formed after the analogy of the D. vrijbueter, which appears to be the oldest form). In a Dutch work (“De Americaensche Zee-Roovers,” 1678) written by a bucaneer named John Oexmelin, otherwise Exquemelin or Esquemeling, and translated into French and Spanish, and subsequently into English (1684), the adventurers of the West Indies are said to have been divided into three classes—the bucaneers (boucaniers) or hunters (see bucaneer), the filibusters (flibustiers) or rovers, and the farmers (habitans); and the flibustiers are said to have assumed their name “from the English word flibuster, which means rover”; this must refer to English freebooter, but the D. form appears to be the original. The bucaneers consisted mainly of French, Dutch, and English adventurers, and not to any extent of Spaniards, with whom they were constantly at war; the Spanish form filibustero can only be an accommodation of the F. flibustier; the s is now pronounced in F., etc., because, as now used, it is taken from the books, as spelled. The commonly assumed connection with English flyboat (Spanish flibote, filibote, French flibot, from Dutch vlieboot: see flyboat) has no support either in form or in historical fact.
  2. from filibuster, n.
 

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/ˈfɪlɪbəstər/
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