pork barrel
a government appropriation, bill, or policy that supplies funds for local improvements designed to ingratiate legislators with their constituents.
Origin of pork barrel
1Other words from pork barrel
- pork-barrel, adjective
- pork-bar·rel·ing, adjective, noun
Words Nearby pork barrel
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use pork barrel in a sentence
This option creates bad optics as well, because it looks like the old pork-barrel log rolling and legislative sleight-of-hand.
To Be or Not To Be…A Loser: Boehner’s Hamlet Moment | Joe McLean | October 4, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTHe chose fiscal prudence over pork-barrel spending; evidence-based policies over myth and fear; and human rights over vengeance.
Erik Patashnik defends pork barrel spending as necessarily for helping Congress operate.
The list of evil and corrupt pork-barrel recipients goes on and on.
The 2005 highway bill had more than three times the number of pork-barrel appropriations than its 1998 counterpart.
"The perambulating pork-barrel thinks I am crazy," he mused, looking at the frock-coat.
The Landloper | Holman DaySome nice bear steak would not go so badly just now, in the present state of our pantry and pork barrel.
The Pony Rider Boys in New England | Frank Gee PatchinOwn the pig—own the pig and watch him as he grows ripe for the pork barrel.
Yet the rays of the afternoon sun rested with undiminished radiance on the empty pork-barrel in front of McMullin's shebang.
Stories by American Authors, Volume 1 | VariousFor some reason a barrel that has once held beef will never do for a pork barrel, though the rule may be reversed with impunity.
British Dictionary definitions for pork barrel
slang, mainly US
a bill or project requiring considerable government spending in a locality to the benefit of the legislator's constituents
(as modifier): pork-barrel spending
Origin of pork barrel
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with pork barrel
Government funding of something that benefits a particular district, whose legislator thereby wins favor with local voters. For example, Our senator knows the value of the pork barrel. This expression alludes to the fatness of pork, equated with political largesse since the mid-1800s. [c. 1900]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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