Throttlebottom

[ throt-l-bot-uhm ]

noun

, (sometimes lowercase)

1. a harmless incompetent in public office.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Throttlebottom¹

After Alexander Throttlebottom, character in Of Thee I Sing (1932), musical comedy by George S. Kaufman ( def ) and Morrie Ryskind (1895–1985), American dramatist, lyricist, and writer

Example Sentences

"He may be viewed as a kind of Ivy League Throttlebottom," declared a wary admirer, "but he is formidable -- and absolutely necessary."

From Time Magazine Archive

Quayle, who often seemed as lost as an actor missing half the pages of his script, struggled to overcome his own Throttlebottom image -- and lost.

From Time Magazine Archive

Gone is the Throttlebottom era, when almost any politician, remotely competent and occasionally sober, could be drafted to fill out a ticket.

From Time Magazine Archive

Suddenly, politicians and pundits have been seized by a peculiar malady known as Throttlebottom Frenzy.

From Time Magazine Archive

Toward the end of his life�he died in 1969�it began to seem that Dirksen's most interesting achievement was himself: a rumpled travesty of Throttlebottom, Pekin, Ill., Polonius wreathed in consciously self-mocking fustian, a man at once shamelessly sentimental and uncommonly shrewd.

From Time Magazine Archive