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pork barrel
noun
- a government appropriation, bill, or policy that supplies funds for local improvements designed to ingratiate legislators with their constituents.
pork barrel
noun
- slang.
- a bill or project requiring considerable government spending in a locality to the benefit of the legislator's constituents
- ( as modifier )
pork-barrel spending
Other Words From
- pork-barrel adjective
- pork-barrel·ing adjective noun
Word History and Origins
Origin of pork barrel1
Word History and Origins
Origin of pork barrel1
Idioms and Phrases
Government funding of something that benefits a particular district, whose legislator thereby wins favor with local voters. For example, Our senator knows the value of the pork barrel . This expression alludes to the fatness of pork, equated with political largesse since the mid-1800s. [c. 1900]Example Sentences
This option creates bad optics as well, because it looks like the old pork-barrel log rolling and legislative sleight-of-hand.
He chose fiscal prudence over pork-barrel spending; evidence-based policies over myth and fear; and human rights over vengeance.
Erik Patashnik defends pork barrel spending as necessarily for helping Congress operate.
The list of evil and corrupt pork-barrel recipients goes on and on.
The 2005 highway bill had more than three times the number of pork-barrel appropriations than its 1998 counterpart.
"The perambulating pork-barrel thinks I am crazy," he mused, looking at the frock-coat.
Some nice bear steak would not go so badly just now, in the present state of our pantry and pork barrel.
Own the pig—own the pig and watch him as he grows ripe for the pork barrel.
Yet the rays of the afternoon sun rested with undiminished radiance on the empty pork-barrel in front of McMullin's shebang.
For some reason a barrel that has once held beef will never do for a pork barrel, though the rule may be reversed with impunity.
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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.
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