Definition of Filibuster

1. Noun. A legislator who gives long speeches in an effort to delay or obstruct legislation that he (or she) opposes.

Exact synonyms: Filibusterer
Generic synonyms: Delayer, Legislator

2. Verb. Obstruct deliberately by delaying.
Category relationships: Lawmaking, Legislating, Legislation
Generic synonyms: Block, Blockade, Embarrass, Hinder, Obstruct, Stymie, Stymy
Derivative terms: Filibusterer

3. Noun. (law) a tactic for delaying or obstructing legislation by making long speeches.
Generic synonyms: Delay, Holdup
Category relationships: Jurisprudence, Law

Definition of Filibuster

1. n. A lawless military adventurer, especially one in quest of plunder; a freebooter; -- originally applied to buccaneers infesting the Spanish American coasts, but introduced into common English to designate the followers of Lopez in his expedition to Cuba in 1851, and those of Walker in his expedition to Nicaragua, in 1855.

2. v. i. To act as a filibuster, or military freebooter.

Definition of Filibuster

1. Noun. A freebooter, or mercenary soldier. ¹

2. Noun. (US politics) A delaying tactic, especially the use of long, often irrelevant speeches given in order to delay progress or the making of a decision, especially on the floor of the US Senate. ¹

3. Noun. (US politics) A member of a legislative body causing such obstruction. ¹

4. Verb. To take part in a private military action in a foreign country. ¹

5. Verb. (US politics) To use obstructionist tactics in a legislative body. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Filibuster

1. [v -ED, -ING, -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Filibuster

filial
filial duty
filial generation
filial life
filial lives
filial piety
filially
filiate
filiated
filiates
filiating
filiation
filiations
filibeg
filibegs
filibuster (current term)
filibusterable
filibustered
filibusterer
filibusterers
filibustering
filibusterism
filibusters
filical
filicane
filicic
filicidal
filicide
filicides
filiciform

Literary usage of Filibuster

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The American Year Book: A Record of Events and Progress by Francis Graham Wickware, (, Albert Bushnell Hart, (, Simon Newton Dexter North, William M. Schuyler (1918)
"The Armed Ship Bill and the Republican filibuster. ... For the first two days the filibuster was directed against the Emergency Revenue bill, not because of ..."

2. A History of California: The American Period by Robert Glass Cleland (1922)
"... THE DAY OF THE filibuster THE annexation of California and New Mexico in 1848 represented only a partial realization of the territorial ambitions of ..."

3. The Treaty of Washington: Its Negotiation, Execution, and the Discussions by Caleb Cushing (1873)
"filibuster OBJECTIONS. Do the Rules, as construed by the Decision of the Treaty, disclose that due diligence, voluntary diligence, in the discharge of ..."

4. The Story of the Filibusters by James Jeffrey Roche, Davy Crockett (1891)
"HE difference between a filibuster .and.a freebooter is one of ends rather than of means. Some authorities say that the words have a common etymology; ..."

5. The American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge by George Ripley, Charles Anderson Dana (1883)
"filibuster. The river Vly in Holland is said to hare furnished the name fly boat in ... The term filibuster has recently been introduced into the English ..."

6. History of California by Theodore Henry Hittell (1898)
"... rewards of further successful encroachments not only encouraged but gave a strong and in some quarters irresistible impetus to filibuster expeditions. ..."

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