rent-a-mob
9.1
People paid to join a protest to make it look bigger
- noun
- /ˈrɛntəˌmɑb/
- Slang
:
multitud alquilada
- The news report exposed how the event featured a rent-a-mob that had been paid to disrupt the meeting.
Examples
-
So the story became about the funding and not the message, regardless of the short-term violence from rent-a-mobs in the Muslim world.
Blog text (10) -
" Seemed to me he was off teleprompter—reveling in his crowd of astro-turf rent-a-mob sycophants.
Blog text (17) -
The protest was filled with people who looked like they were just hired to be there; it was clear they were a rent-a-mob.
-
During the election, the candidate's team brought in a rent-a-mob to create the illusion of widespread support.
How Genuine
Surface Forms
rent-a-mob singular
rent-a-mobs plural
Morphology
Etymology
Rent-a-mob comes from the English words rent ('pay to use') and mob ('a large crowd'). It paints the picture of a crowd you can hire, so a rent-a-mob is a group paid to show up at a protest or event to make it look like more people support or oppose something.