Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The exchanging of political favors, especially the trading of influence or votes among legislators to achieve passage of projects that are of interest to one another.
  • noun The exchanging of favors or praise, as among artists, critics, or academics.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A joining of forces for the purpose of handling logs:
  • noun Hence Mutual aid given by persons to one another in carrying out their several schemes or gaining their individual ends: used especially of politicians and legislators.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Logging), U.S., U.S. The act or process of rolling logs from the place where they were felled to the stream which floats them to the sawmill or to market. In this labor neighboring camps of loggers combine to assist each other in turn.
  • noun Cant, U.S. A combining or mutual agreement in which one politician supports or assists another in consideration of receiving assistance in return; wheeling and dealing; -- sometimes used of a disreputable mode of accomplishing political schemes or ends.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The rolling of logs.
  • noun A concerted effort to push forward mutually advantageous legislative agendas.
  • noun Mutual recommendation of friends' or colleagues' services or products. Commonly used in the context of book recommendations in literary reviews etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun act of exchanging favors for mutual gain; especially trading of influence or votes among legislators to gain passage of certain projects
  • noun rotating a log rapidly in the water (as a competitive sport)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From the early American practice of neighbors gathering to help clear land by rolling off and burning felled timber.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

log + rolling, from the practice of neighbors helping each other roll logs to build a community fire.

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Examples

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  • This was a sport in Most Extreme Eliminations.

    January 22, 2013