pocket borough

American  

noun

1. (before the Reform Bill of 1832) any English borough whose representatives in Parliament were controlled by an individual or family.

2. an election district under the control of an individual, family, or group.

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pocket borough British  

noun

1. (before the Reform Act of 1832) an English borough constituency controlled by one person or family who owned the land Compare rotten borough

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Etymology

Origin of pocket borough

First recorded in 1855–60

Example Sentences

Even in the House of Commons, most seats are pocket boroughs, controlled by those who fund the major parties and establish the limits of political action.

From The Guardian

For in every bookseller's window caricatures of the "Last of the Boroughbridges," as the wits called him, after the pocket borough for which he sat, were plentiful as blackberries.

From Project Gutenberg

It was a pocket borough, and there is nothing to show that Ricardo ever visited his constituents; but this did not prevent him from strongly denouncing the system of election.

From Project Gutenberg

Educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, he entered parliament soon after attaining his majority as member for the pocket borough of Bletchingly in Surrey.

From Project Gutenberg

Foster, who made the greatest speech in Parliament against the union, received seventy-five hundred pounds for his half share of a pocket borough.

From Project Gutenberg