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

See Examples For:

pocket borough

Stanley inherited from his father Alfred the thriving steel works of Baldwins, Ltd., a directorship of the Great Western Railway, and the pocket borough of Bewdley in Worcestershire.

From Time Magazine Archive

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 Irish History and the Irish Question by Smith, Goldwin

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 Letters of David Ricardo to Thomas Robert Malthus, 1810-1823 by Ricardo, David

Thereafter, it was storekeeper Lincoln's pocket borough; its ruffians were his body-guard.

From Lincoln; An Account of his Personal Life, Especially of its Springs of Action as Revealed and Deepened by the Ordeal of War by Stephenson, Nathaniel W. (Nathaniel Wright)

The Flats, mind you; our own little pocket borough of the Flats!

From The Henchman by Luther, Mark Lee