bork

¹

[bawrk]

verb (used with object)

1. to cause to malfunction, especially computer hardware or software: The fonts are borked when the site is accessed from a mobile device.

   Installing updates in the wrong order will bork all of your saved games.

   The fonts are borked when the site is accessed from a mobile device.

2. to mess up, ruin, break, botch, etc.: Of course I borked my leg on the first day of our ski trip.

   He said all of the wrong things during his interview and completely borked his chances of being invited back.

   Of course I borked my leg on the first day of our ski trip.

bork

²

[bawrk]

verb (used with object)

1. to attack (a candidate or public figure) systematically, especially in the media.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bork¹

First recorded in 2000–05; perhaps an alteration of break ( def. ), influenced by bork ² ( def. )

Origin of bork²

An Americanism dating back to 1988; after Judge Robert H. Bork, whose appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court was blocked in 1987 after an extensive media campaign by his opponents

Example Sentences

When President Reagan nominated Robert Bork to the Supreme Court in 1987, it seemed a historical turning point: the moment when the court would end its decadeslong progressive trajectory and turn in a more conservative, originalist direction.

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Instead, Sen. Edward Kennedy and his Democratic colleagues blocked Bork’s nomination by waging war on both his record and his reputation.

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But his most famous decisions departed completely from the originalist jurisprudence of Bork and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, as well as the generation of conservative judges that developed in their wake.

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Her target is originalism, a pet cause of the right, championed by the pugilistic Robert Bork and former Justice Antonin Scalia.

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County Superior Court Judge Terry Bork briefly jailed the Weisenbergs and days later order the plant shuttered for failure to comply.

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