placeman

American  

[pleys-muhn] / ˈpleɪs mən /

noun

British.

• placemen
  plural

1. a person appointed to a position, especially one in the government, as a reward for political support of an elected official.

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placeman British  

/ ˈpleɪsmən /

noun

1. derogatory a person who holds a public office, esp for private profit and as a reward for political support

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• placemanship
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• placemen
  plural

Etymology

Origin of placeman

First recorded in 1735–45; place + -man

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

placeman placemen

Mr Sharif has installed a loyal placeman, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, previously the minister for natural resources, as interim prime minister.

From Economist ● Aug. 3, 2017

Meanwhile, far from being a Whelan placeman, Cryer was another of his targets.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 21, 2010

He was a legislator and Executive Councillor, but not a placeman.

From The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation Volume 1 by Charles Roger

She was well aware of our matron's inveteracy against her and her establishment, and she resented it as a placeman resents the efforts of a radical.

From St. Ronan's Well by Sir Walter Scott

You are a placeman, mutually disgracing and disgraced.

From Damon and Delia A Tale by William Godwin

But while the administrators controlled Polly Peck's assets on paper and in law, in Northern Cyprus and Turkey those properties and businesses remained firmly in the hands of the tycoon's placemen.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 26, 2012

We should not place too literal a construction upon the repinings of disappointed placemen.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, No. 14, December 1858 by Various

His object was to emancipate parliament from the control of placemen and pensioners and to break the power of the borough-owners by the extension of the franchise.

From The New Irish Constitution by J. H. Morgan

Till we gain a reform, and do placemen away, We’ll at Liberty’s call, all her dictates obey.

From A Poem to the Memory of our late lamented Queen Caroline of England by James Parkerson

The restricting of local officers to one office at a time struck a blow at Berkeley's system of government by placemen.

From Bacon's Rebellion, 1676 by Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker