spoilsman

[ spoilz-muhn ]

noun

, plural spoils·men.

1. a person who seeks or receives a share in political spoils.
2. an advocate of the spoils system in politics.

spoilsman

/ ˈspɔɪlzmən /

noun

1. politics a person who shares in the spoils of office or advocates the spoils system

Word History and Origins

Origin of spoilsman¹

1835–45, Americanism; spoils ( def ) + -man

Example Sentences

Even now it may be doubted whether the disfavor with which it is regarded is prompted so much by its prejudicial tendency from a public point of view as by its tendency, from the point of view of the spoilsman, to interfere with the repeated use of office for partisan purposes.

From Project Gutenberg

“The Spoilsman,” “Policeman Flynn,” etc.

From Project Gutenberg

I had not seen the person who made inquiry for the letter—the files of men in front preventing me—but judging by the time at which the spoilsman passed out at the exit end of the slip, he must have been near the delivery-window when the inquiry was made.

From Project Gutenberg

Mon Dieu! it is infamous: a common spoilsman—a swindler—even worse, I have heard; and to think how my character suffers!

From Project Gutenberg

Up to the rostrum went a brief resolution from Tennessee's Kenneth McKellar, the premier spoilsman of the Senate.

From Time Magazine Archive