legacy-hunting

Unlike the Bush Administration in its legacy-hunting days, inconstancy is not a policy option they can afford.

Iran Has Earned Nothing 2008

I always thought that these people infected the Yasnaya Polyana house, as well as the great house of Countess Panin, with a spirit of hypocrisy, cowardice, mercenary and self-seeking pettiness and legacy-hunting.

Reminiscences of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy 1920

Thus, he shows the bad tendencies of avarice and love-intrigues, and the meanness of sycophantism and legacy-hunting.

History of English Humour, Vol. 1 (of 2) With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange 1873

Accustomed to the legacy-hunting spirit of many parasites, the old lady thought that Julian would be like the rest, and hoped to enjoy the sight of him reduced to submission and obedience, in the hopes of future advantage; not that she would exult in his humiliation, but she was glad of any pretext to bring the noble boy before her as a suppliant for her favour.

Julian Home 1867

Seneca had, by usury and legacy-hunting, amassed one of those large fortunes of which so many instances are met with in Roman history; feeling the dangers of wealth, he offered his property to Nero, who refused it, but resolved to rid himself of his former tutor, and easily found a pretext for his destruction.

Handbook of Universal Literature From the Best and Latest Authorities Anne C. Lynch Botta 1853

Saint-Loup,” all the more so as she ventured at times so far as to invite, with them, Mme. de Marsantes, who was emphatically the ‘great lady’ with a fan of tortoise-shell and ostrich feathers, this again being a piece of legacy-hunting.

The Sweet Cheat Gone 2003