smoke-filled room

American  

[smohk-fild, -fild] / ˈsmoʊkˌfɪld, -ˈfɪld /

noun

1. a place, as a hotel room, for conducting secret negotiations, effecting compromises, devising strategy, etc.

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smoke-filled room Cultural  

1. A popular expression used to describe a place where the political wheeling and dealing of machine bosses (see machine politics) is conducted. The image originated during the Republican presidential nominating convention of 1920, in which Warren G. Harding emerged as a dark horse candidate.

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Etymology

Origin of smoke-filled room

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

smoke-filled room

Maybe CFB should go Waymo, blame the robots for any uproar about gatekeeping and big-school elitism and let the smoke-filled room return to cognacs and afternoon naps.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 22, 2025

"We didn't want people fumbling about in the dark, in possibly a smoke-filled room, trying to undo a lock," she said.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2025

A rural Ohio newspaperman who had risen to U.S. senator, Harding was a reluctant compromise candidate during the 1920 Republican convention in Chicago, emerging from a proverbially smoke-filled room.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 13, 2023

The modern presidential convention is less of a smoke-filled room and more of a trade event, where people mingle, commiserate, and then ratify the results of the primaries in a grand display of unity.

From Slate ● Jul. 18, 2016

While he was chuckling over his victory, the other man was demanding a return chance at Phil, but the Boy Ranger forestalled this by pleading a headache from the heat and the smoke-filled room.

From The Ranger Boys and the Border Smugglers by Labelle, Claude A.

Related Words

• campaigning
• government