spoilsman
Americannoun
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a person who seeks or receives a share in political spoils.
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an advocate of the spoils system in politics.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of spoilsman
1835–45, spoils ( def. ) + -man
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There, Tennessee's irascible spoilsman encountered another enemy�Paul Douglas of Illinois, who had tried his best, without success, to pry some of the pork out of the same $32.5 billion omnibus appropriation bill.
From Time Magazine Archive
Scuttlebutt had it that he had been summoned in an effort to get him to stop Tennessee's Senator Kenneth McKellar, the Senate's premier spoilsman, from trying to wreck TVA.
From Time Magazine Archive
The crusty old spoilsman swept aside the Narcotics Bureau report, quavering, "Papers, just papers."
From Time Magazine Archive
McKellar, premier Senate spoilsman, had once envisioned TVA as a wonderful new Tennessee source of political jobs� something juicier than marshalcies and postmasterships.
From Time Magazine Archive
The story of a two-fisted product of the west, pitted against a rascally spoilsman, who sought to get control of Marion Harlan and her ranch.
From Kid Scanlan by Witwer, H. C. (Harry Charles)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
