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.

---

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

---

Etymology

Origin of rotten borough

First recorded in 1805–15

Example Sentences

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

From Time Magazine Archive

The electors for the borough of Southwark rejected Mr. Tierney, and he was obliged to come in for a ministerial rotten borough.

From Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. — Volume 2 by Hunt, Henry

The rather rotten borough became suffused with the radiant atmosphere of Olympus.

From The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. 1 (of 3) 1809-1859 by Morley, John

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

From The Humorous Poetry of the English Language; from Chaucer to Saxe by Parton, James

Whitchurch was another famous posting centre and, like Andover, a rotten borough.

From Wanderings in Wessex An Exploration of the Southern Realm from Itchen to Otter by Holmes, Edric