whistle stop
noun
a small, unimportant town, especially one along a railroad line.
Jump To:
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whistle stop
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whistle-stop
whistle-stopverb (used without object)to campaign for political office by traveling around the country, originally by train, stopping at small communities to address voters.
whistle stop
1 Americannoun
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a small, unimportant town, especially one along a railroad line.
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a short talk from the rear platform of a train, especially during a political campaign.
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a brief appearance, single performance, or the like, in a small town, as during a political campaign or theatrical tour.
whistle-stop
2
American
[hwis-uhl-stop, wis-]
/ ˈʰwɪs əlˌstɒp, ˈwɪs- /
verb (used without object)
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whistle-stops,
present (3rd person singular)
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whistle-stopped,
past participle, past
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whistle-stopping
present participle
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to campaign for political office by traveling around the country, originally by train, stopping at small communities to address voters.
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to take a trip consisting of several brief, usually overnight, stops.
adjective
whistle stop
British
noun
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a minor railway station where trains stop only on signal
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a small town having such a station
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a brief appearance in a town, esp by a political candidate to make a speech, shake hands, etc
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( as modifier )
a whistle-stop tour
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verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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whistle-stopsimple
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whistle-stopssimple
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have whistle-stoppedperfect
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has whistle-stoppedperfect
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am whistle-stoppingprogressive
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are whistle-stoppingprogressive
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is whistle-stoppingprogressive
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have been whistle-stoppingperfect progressive
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has been whistle-stoppingperfect progressive
Past
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whistle-stoppedsimple
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had whistle-stoppedperfect
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was whistle-stoppingprogressive
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were whistle-stoppingprogressive
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had been whistle-stoppingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of whistle stop1
An Americanism dating back to 1920–25
Origin of whistle-stop2
First recorded in 1950–55
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:
India's president has made a whistle stop tour of an island earmarked for multi-billion dollar development that experts warn could wipe out the indigenous tribe which calls it home.
From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2024
Passengers from miles around traveled to the little Nippeno whistle stop with their freight and cattle to catch the train.
From Slate ● Dec. 4, 2017
In 1981, they invited Baker to Princeton for a chance to perform the experiments, one whistle stop on a reproducibility tour of several U.S. campuses in the Northeast.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 23, 2016
“We have to start looking at families now,” Trump said at a Saturday whistle stop in Iowa, referring to suspect Syed Rizwan Farook.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 6, 2015
Lansdale was too small even to be called a "whistle stop," because no trains came near it.
From The Blue Ghost Mystery by Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin
Elections follow technology from newspapers to Teddy Roosevelt’s whistle-stop train tours, radio addresses, newsreels and sweaty Richard Nixon vs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 16, 2025
A successful Oscar campaign makes a series of whistle-stop speeches.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2025
Today's Bank Holiday weekend will start with Rishi Sunak visiting the north-east after the prime minister completed a whistle-stop tour of the four home nations over the last two days.
From BBC ● May 25, 2024
A whistle-stop tour of Lincoln’s body is framed as a flashy PR strategy.
From New York Times ● Mar. 28, 2024
They was big enough for a station, but not much bigger than what we called a whistle-stop.
From "Life Is So Good" by George Dawson
On the other, it celebrates the American vernacular in the form of Central California whistle-stops, working-class bungalows and Joan Blondell’s impersonating a tipsy hash-slinger out for a night on the town.
From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2017
After all, coastal hamlets, mountaintop villages, and desert whistle-stops have inspired American artists for generations, among them, the Impressionists of Connecticut’s Old Lyme Colony and the minimalist installation artists who more recently gentrified Marfa.
From Time ● Jan. 26, 2015
Before long, Ms. Raimondo has been cautioning in whistle-stops here and across the state, that figure will climb perilously toward 20 cents.
From New York Times ● Oct. 22, 2011
Armed with that record, the no longer amiable Truman initiated the famous railroad tour that was named when Senator Robert Taft complained that the President was "blackguarding Congress at whistle-stops all over the country."
From Time Magazine Archive
Even at night, that train made whistle-stops in places where there was nothing but farms or a small mill.
From "Life Is So Good" by George Dawson
Riding a red train, he whistle-stopped the country defending workers and exhorting voters to support him.
From US News ● Jun. 8, 2016
On the day that Harry Truman whistle-stopped at Clarksburg, the Exponent carried not a word about it.
From Time Magazine Archive
Imitating Harry Truman, Ford whistle-stopped by railroad through Michigan over the weekend.
From Time Magazine Archive
And as he whistle-stopped through Michigan and Ohio, hedgehopped into Kentucky and then flew in to Cincinnati, he worked these themes hard.
From Time Magazine Archive
Like Harry Truman in 1948, he whistle-stopped through Ohio and motored across eastern Pennsylvania, giving as much hell as he had earlier absorbed.
From Time Magazine Archive
Nixon has zigzagged 18,000 miles across the state, most recently whistle-stopping from Santa Cruz to San Diego in a "Victory Special" train.
From Time Magazine Archive
"What's the word for this trip?" asked newsmen of Harry Truman as he for three days of whistle-stopping in New England and New York.
From Time Magazine Archive
There will be far less whistle-stopping and fewer talks with local bosses, now that TV is out of the bush league of politicking.
From Time Magazine Archive
Battling an ulcer, he went all the way with H.S.T. for 22,000 whistle-stopping miles and saw him snatch victory from odds-on Favorite Tom Dewey.
From Time Magazine Archive
While the old-fashioned whistle stop did not seem the right way to campaign in streamlined 1952, there was far more whistle-stopping and more public response to it than ever before.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
