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Watergate definition

☆ Water·gate (-gāt′)

noun

a scandal that involves officials violating public trust through subterfuge, bribery, burglary, and other abuses of power in order to maintain their positions of authority

Etymology: after Watergate, building complex in Washington, D.C., housing Democratic Party headquarters, burglarized (June, 1972) under direction of government officials

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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