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Glite Dictionary
party whip

party whip

1 7.2
A person in a political party who makes sure members attend and vote as leaders want
  • noun
  • /ˈpɑrti wɪp/
  • Literature
translation icon : jefe de grupo
  • It is the duty of the party whip to maintain discipline within the party and support the proposed legislation.

Examples

  • Two of their MSPs resigned the party whip due to the u-turn (yes, another SNP u-turn) over NATO membership.

    Blog text (3)

  • The party whip ensured all members voted according to the leadership's wishes during the crucial vote.

  • As the party whip, Jamie was responsible for making sure everyone attended the important discussions.

Synonyms

whip
vsparty whip
68 7.8

A party member in a law-making group who makes sure others attend and vote

is the position defined by carrying out leadership wishes and ensuring attendance and voting

Antonyms

rebel
658 3.6

A person who acts against the government or people in power

independent
122 3.6

A person who does not belong to any political party

Surface Forms

party whip singular
party whips plural

Morphology

party + whip

The meaning of 'party whip' is directly built from 'party' (political organization) + 'whip' (the party-appointed legislator who secures votes), so it denotes the whip associated with a particular party. This simple possessive/attributive noun-noun composition is cross-linguistically common and should be inferable by a B1 learner who knows both constituent meanings.

Etymology

Party whip may come from an old hunting job where a whip kept the hunting dogs together so they did not run away. So today a party whip makes sure party members stay together and 'attend' and 'vote as the party wants'.