boroughmonger

English

Etymology

borough +‎ monger

Noun

boroughmonger (plural boroughmongers)

1. (historical) In the unreformed House of Commons, one who bought or sold the parliamentary seats of boroughs.
   • 1966, Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church, volume 1, page 26:

     Whig and radical newspapers pilloried them as allies of boroughmongers, maintainers of graft and corruption and bribery, enemies of liberty and the civil rights of Englishmen.

Related terms

• monger and its derived terms

Further reading

• “boroughmonger”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.