committee of the whole
- the entire membership of a legislative body, sitting in a deliberative rather than a legislative capacity, for informal debate and preliminary consideration of matters awaiting legislative action.
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Origin of committee of the whole
First recorded in 1745–55
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for committee of the whole
Historical Examples
Their decisions were made in committee-of-the-whole, and nothing was done that could not meet with the willing consent of all.
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