med_cat: (Default)
Nechama Chaya ([personal profile] med_cat) wrote in [community profile] 1word1day2017-03-24 05:04 pm

Friday word: filibuster

filibuster, n. fil·i·bus·ter \ˈfi-lə-ˌbə-stər\

1: an irregular military adventurer; specifically : an American engaged in fomenting insurrections in Latin America in the mid-19th century

2 a : the use of extreme dilatory (see dilatory 1) tactics (as by making long speeches) in an attempt to delay or prevent action especially in a legislative assembly

b : an instance of this practice

Examples:

The filibuster delayed the voting on the bill for over a week.

They engaged in a filibuster that lasted for over a week.

More details, and notable examples of filibuster, can be found in this Wikipedia article: Filibuster in the United States Senate

Etymology

Spanish filibustero, literally, freebooter


First Known Use: 1851

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