'Rotten borough' definitions:

Definition of 'rotten borough'

From: WordNet
noun
An English parliamentary constituency with few electors

Definition of 'Rotten borough'

From: GCIDE
  • Rotten \Rot"ten\, a. [Icel. rotinn; akin to Sw. rutten, Dan. radden. See Rot.] Having rotted; putrid; decayed; as, a rotten apple; rotten meat. Hence: (a) Offensive to the smell; fetid; disgusting. [1913 Webster]
  • You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate As reek of the rotten fens. --Shak. [1913 Webster] (b) Not firm or trusty; unsound; defective; treacherous; unsafe; as, a rotten plank, bone, stone. "The deepness of the rotten way." --Knolles. [1913 Webster]
  • Rotten borough. See under Borough.
  • Rotten stone (Min.), a soft stone, called also Tripoli (from the country from which it was formerly brought), used in all sorts of finer grinding and polishing in the arts, and for cleaning metallic substances. The name is also given to other friable siliceous stones applied to like uses. [1913 Webster]
  • Syn: Putrefied; decayed; carious; defective; unsound; corrupt; deceitful; treacherous. [1913 Webster] -- {Rot"ten*ly}, adv. -- {Rot"ten*ness}, n. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Rotten borough'

From: GCIDE
  • Borough \Bor"ough\, n. [OE. burgh, burw, boru, port, town, burrow, AS. burh, burg; akin to Icel., Sw., & Dan. borg, OS. & D. burg, OHG. puruc, purc, MHG. burc, G. burg, Goth. ba['u]rgs; and from the root of AS. beorgan to hide, save, defend, G. bergen; or perh. from that of AS. beorg hill, mountain. [root]95. See Bury, v. t., and cf. Burrow, Burg, Bury, n., Burgess, Iceberg, Borrow, Harbor, Hauberk.]
  • 1. In England, an incorporated town that is not a city; also, a town that sends members to parliament; in Scotland, a body corporate, consisting of the inhabitants of a certain district, erected by the sovereign, with a certain jurisdiction; in America, an incorporated town or village, as in Pennsylvania and Connecticut. --Burrill. --Erskine. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. The collective body of citizens or inhabitants of a borough; as, the borough voted to lay a tax. [1913 Webster]
  • Close borough, or Pocket borough, a borough having the right of sending a member to Parliament, whose nomination is in the hands of a single person.
  • Rotten borough, a name given to any borough which, at the time of the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832, contained but few voters, yet retained the privilege of sending a member to Parliament. [1913 Webster]