spoilsman
Americannoun
plural
spoilsmen-
a person who seeks or receives a share in political spoils.
-
an advocate of the spoils system in politics.
noun
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.
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
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
But it was left for the Senate's master spoilsman, bulb-nosed Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee, to launch a bill that was even more alarming to large chunks of official Washington.
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 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.
