pocket borough
- noun
- Archaic
:
distrito electoral controlado
- He secured his position in a pocket borough, allowing him to win the election without much public support.
Examples
-
Of course, there were plenty of pocket boroughs, with proprietors selling their seats on the open market.
Academic text (2010) -
If anything, this only strengthened Lord Pembroke's interest in what remained a pocket borough: Wilton, which still only had a registered electorate of 298 at the 1832 general election, continued to elect Conservatives for its now single seat for many years.
Academic text (2010) -
Although a pocket borough is not exactly the same as a rotten one...
Blog text (1) -
After all, he did not need to play to his constituency for votes since he represented a pocket borough made up of his own tenants.
Academic text (2007) -
The young writer Tom Macaulay sat for the Whig cabinet minister Lord Lansdowne's pocket borough.
Academic text (2010) -
In the 19th century, many politicians sought to influence elections in a pocket borough where a few wealthy families controlled the vote.
-
Representing a pocket borough meant he only had to cater to the interests of a small number of voters.
Synonyms
A small English voting area in the past where one person controlled the few voters
Surface Forms
Morphology
A learner who knows 'pocket' as a small/separate area and 'borough' as a town could plausibly infer 'a small borough', so part of the meaning is compositional. However, the historical sense that the borough is effectively controlled by a single person or family depends on the metaphorical sense of 'pocket' = 'under someone's control', which is not directly predictable from the literal meanings, so the phrase is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Pocket borough comes from a simple image: a very small town or voting seat so tiny that a rich owner could keep it in his pocket, like a private place or borough he owned. That's why the term means a seat where one person or family 'controls' who gets elected.
