smoke-filled room

[ smohk-fild, -fild ]

noun

1. a place, as a hotel room, for conducting secret negotiations, effecting compromises, devising strategy, etc.

smoke-filled room

1. A popular expression used to describe a place where the political wheeling and dealing of machine bosses ( see machine politics ) is conducted. The image originated during the Republican presidential nominating convention of 1920, in which Warren G. Harding emerged as a dark horse candidate.

Word History and Origins

Origin of smoke-filled room¹

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

“Even though these landlords are not getting together in the proverbial smoke-filled room and saying, ‘We all need to raise our rents by $100,’ they’re colluding by using the same software that aggregates their data,” he said.

From Slate

We even have the cliched “smoke-filled room” where this used to happen.

From Slate

When officers enter the cell, they can be seen wrestling Zumwalt to the floor in the smoke-filled room.

From Los Angeles Times

For decades during the 1900s the process was dominated by state and local party bosses, giving rise to the notion of the “smoke-filled room,” where top leaders were said to huddle secretly to determine their presidential candidate.

From Seattle Times

A rural Ohio newspaperman who had risen to U.S. senator, Harding was a reluctant compromise candidate during the 1920 Republican convention in Chicago, emerging from a proverbially smoke-filled room.

From Seattle Times

Related Words

• campaigning
• government