doughface
Americannoun
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a Northerner who sympathized with the South during the controversies over new territories and slavery before the Civil War.
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a congressman from a northern state not opposed to slavery in the South.
Etymology
Origin of doughface
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The choice went instead to James Buchanan, a colorless Pennsylvania doughface with a long record of party service dating back to Andrew Jackson’s day.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
At the same time, emphasizing Pierce’s status as a doughface threatened to push anti-slavery Democrats into the splinter Free Soil Party, fracturing the party in the North.
From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2012
Under the full light the doughface looked ghostly.
From Dave Darrin's Fourth Year at Annapolis by H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock
In this sense Lincoln, with his life-long record of opposition to the extension of slavery, was a doughface.
From From Sail to Steam, Recollections of Naval Life by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan
Over in the opposite alcove the discipline officer made out, more vaguely, the lay figure and the doughface intended to represent Midshipman Dan Dalzell.
From Dave Darrin's Fourth Year at Annapolis by H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
