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spoilsman

American  
[spoilz-muhn] / ˈspɔɪlz mən /

noun

  • spoilsmen
    plural
  1. a person who seeks or receives a share in political spoils.

  2. an advocate of the spoils system in politics.


spoilsman British  
/ ˈspɔɪlzmən /

noun

  1. politics a person who shares in the spoils of office or advocates the spoils system

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

See Examples For:

Up to the rostrum went a brief resolution from Tennessee's Kenneth McKellar, the premier spoilsman of the Senate.

From Time Magazine Archive

The crusty old spoilsman swept aside the Narcotics Bureau report, quavering, "Papers, just papers."

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

Barkley chatted calmly with Tennessee's truculent spoilsman, Kenneth McKellar, at the desk on his left.

From Time Magazine Archive

The decision of Arthur to take counsel from the Stalwarts aroused fears among others of the party that his would be the administration of a spoilsman.

From The New Nation by William E. Dodd

Its leaders were party bosses and spoilsmen; in the burgeoning economy of the Reconstruction Era, many a robber baron found that a state legislature could be bought and, with it, a Senate seat.

From Time Magazine Archive

Out of the fight he carried an abiding hatred of political spoilsmen, an abiding conviction that lasting reform can be achieved only when the electorate has been taught to understand and want it.

From Time Magazine Archive

But Governor Dewey got the men he wanted, and the spoilsmen in his party got the idea.

From Time Magazine Archive

The spoilsmen got busy at killing the bill.

From Time Magazine Archive

By these and similar spurious questions the spoilsmen hoped to get rid of the reformers.

From Theodore Roosevelt; an Intimate Biography by William Roscoe Thayer

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