Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Teapot Dome scandal

Teapot Dome scandal

1 7.9
A large United States political corruption case in the early 1920s where government officials secretly leased oil land to companies
  • noun
  • /ˈtiːpɒt doʊm ˈskændl/
  • US
translation icon : escándalo de Teapot Dome
  • LHP was talking yesterday about the House Sergeant at Arms having delivered summons from Congress to various WH folks during the Teapot Dome scandal when the DoJ refused to participate in the investigation.
  • Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s

Examples

  • Teapot Dome Scandal

    Blog text (2)

  • There may be a few extraordinary situations like the Teapot Dome scandal or the Watergate affair in which it is not fair to ask any Attorney General to be responsible for the investigation and prosecution because so much is at stake; and while many of them no doubt would act with complete honor and integrity, questions would be raised about full public confidence.

    Academic text (1998)

  • The Teapot Dome scandal revealed the extent of corruption during the Harding administration.

  • Many historians argue that the Teapot Dome scandal shaped future regulations on government transparency.

  • The investigation into the Teapot Dome scandal exposed how federal oil reserves were mismanaged.

Synonyms

Teapot Dome
vsTeapot Dome scandal
  • US
1 9.9

A 1920s US political scandal about secretly giving oil fields to private companies

is the same event named with an explicit term for the wrongdoing

Surface Forms

Teapot Dome scandal singular
Teapot Dome scandals plural

Morphology

Teapot + Dome + scandal

This is the proper name of a specific historical political event, so its full meaning depends on cultural/historical knowledge rather than on combining 'teapot' + 'dome' + 'scandal'. While the word 'scandal' signals wrongdoing, a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would not be able to infer that it refers to the early-1920s U.S. oil-lease corruption; the place-name 'Teapot Dome' is therefore opaque.

Etymology

Teapot Dome scandal comes from an oil field on a Wyoming rock called Teapot Dome, because the rock looked like a teapot. In the 1920s some government officials secretly let private companies take the oil for money, so the name now means a 'big political corruption case'.