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filibuster

UK/ˈfɪlɪbʌstə(ɹ)/US/ˈfɪləˌbəstər/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,664 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: filibusters

A filibuster is talking on and on to stop a vote being taken. Mount a filibuster.

It works only where debate has no time limit, which is why it belongs to a few chambers. The word once meant a pirate, which is a fair description of what it does to a timetable.

Harris & Ewing, photographer · Public domain

Definitions of filibuster

  1. 1nounfilibusterTalking on and on to stop a vote being taken.C1

    “The filibuster ran for eleven hours and killed the bill.”

filibuster is a tactic.

Where it comes from

Spanish filibustero meant a pirate, from Dutch vrijbuiter, a freebooter.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *preyH-

  2. Dutch

    vrijbuiter — freebooter

  3. French

    flibustier

  4. Spanish

    filibustero — pirate

  5. English, today

    filibuster

Built from

  • vrij · Dutch — free
  • buit · Dutch — booty
  • -er · Dutch — agent
  • vlieboot · Dutch — light, flat-bottomed cargo vessel with two or three masts

Spanish filibustero (“pirate”), from French flibustier, ultimately from Dutch vrijbuiter (“freebooter”), from vrij (“free”) + buit (“booty”) + -er (“agent”). The alteration in the first syllable in French is due to the word's being somewhat conflated with vlieboot (“light, flat-bottomed cargo vessel with two or three masts”) when it was borrowed into French or another language from Dutch. The word is cognate and analogous to English freebooter.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

filibuster in the wild

  • Overcoming filibuster with a simple majority is also called the nuclear option.

    Filibuster

  • Such an enterprise was known at the time as "filibustering".

    William Walker (filibuster)

  • Walker tried to relaunch his filibustering project and sought renewed support from pro-slavery forces in the Southern United States on the eve of the American Civil War.

    William Walker (filibuster)

  • The nuclear option is most often discussed in connection with the filibuster.

    Nuclear option

  • Military filibustering can be considered a form of freelance imperialism.

    Filibuster (military)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.