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

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)

Tillietudlem was no poor pocket borough to be disposed of, this way or that way, according to the caprice or venal call of some aristocrat.

From The Three Clerks by Trollope, Anthony

Like Gatton, Reigate was a pocket borough, and sent two members to Parliament until 1832, when the two were reduced to one.

From Highways and Byways in Surrey by Thomson, Hugh

Yet for generations Lisburn has been a pocket borough, and the nominee of the landlord, often a total stranger, was returned as a matter of course.

From The Land-War In Ireland (1870) A History For The Times by Godkin, James