rotten borough

American  

noun

1. (before the Reform Bill of 1832) any English borough that had very few voters yet was represented in Parliament.

2. an election district that has more representatives in a legislative body than the number of its constituents would normally call for.

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rotten borough British  

noun

1. (before the Reform Act of 1832) any of certain English parliamentary constituencies with only a very few electors Compare pocket borough

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Etymology

Origin of rotten borough

First recorded in 1805–15

Example Sentences

His "rotten borough," with its immemorial animalism, its "idiot," its saints, is propaganda of the universal order.

From Time Magazine Archive

Stonehenge was in the district of Old Sarum, once a rotten borough, as certain places in England were termed which, with little or no population, had yet the right to be represented in Parliament.

From Reminiscences, 1819-1899 by Howe, Julia Ward

He will find no quiet clique of the exclusive, studious and cultured; no rotten borough of the arts. 

From Memories and Portraits by Stevenson, Robert Louis

In the Cabinet, Huskisson's strong stand on the rotten borough question, Huskisson with his desire to accord Parliamentary representation to the working people of Birmingham, had caused his expulsion from the Duke of Wellington's councils.

From A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Volume Two (of Three) by Emerson, Edwin

A few of the townspeople, humiliated at seeing their town always treated as a rotten borough, joined the democrats, though enemies to democracy.

From The Deputy of Arcis by Wormeley, Katharine Prescott