rotten borough

American  

noun

1. (before the Reform Bill of 1832) any English borough that had very few voters yet was represented in Parliament.

2. an election district that has more representatives in a legislative body than the number of its constituents would normally call for.

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rotten borough British  

noun

1. (before the Reform Act of 1832) any of certain English parliamentary constituencies with only a very few electors Compare pocket borough

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Etymology

Origin of rotten borough

First recorded in 1805–15

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

rotten borough

His "rotten borough," with its immemorial animalism, its "idiot," its saints, is propaganda of the universal order.

From Time Magazine Archive

Unfortunately for his own peace of mind, Mr. Gordon identified himself with a rotten borough.

From Western Worthies A Gallery of Biographical and Critical Sketches of West of Scotland Celebrities by J. Stephen (James Stephen) Jeans

For the clique had appropriated all right and claim to a monopoly of The Arabian Nights Entertainments which they held in hand as a rotten borough.

From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 16 by Sir Richard Francis Burton

My heart ferments not with the bigot's leaven, All creeds I view with toleration thorough, And have a horror of regarding heaven As anybody's rotten borough.

From The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood by Thomas Hood

He loaned money to a "noble" gambler, who gave him security for the loan on a rotten borough, which sent a member.

From Sketches of Reforms and Reformers, of Great Britain and Ireland by Henry B. Stanton