filibusterer

Variant of filibuster

filibuster definition

fili·bus·ter (fili bus′tər)

noun

  1. an adventurer who engages in unauthorized warfare against a country with which his own country is at peace; specif., any of the 19th-cent. U.S. adventurers who led armed expeditions into Latin American countries; freebooter
    1. the making of long speeches, introduction of irrelevant issues, etc. in order to obstruct the passage of a bill in the Senate
    2. a member of the Senate who uses such methods
      also filibusterer fil′i·bus′·terer

Etymology: Sp filibustero < Fr flibustier, earlier fribustier < MDu vrijbuiter, freebooter

intransitive verb

  1. to engage in unauthorized warfare as a freebooter
  2. ☆ to engage in a filibuster

transitive verb

☆ to obstruct the passage of (a bill) by a filibuster

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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