Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A false or slanderous story used for political advantage.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A fictitious story published for political effect; a “campaign lie.”
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun U.S. A defamatory forgery or falsehood published for purposes of political intrigue.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Alternative form of
roorbach .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Defined literally, a roorback is a “defamatory falsehood published for political effect,” but I wanted the grand old word to stand for all the defamations and falsehoods published and proffered in our irreverent media age.
AMERICAN SUBVERSIVE DAVID GOODWILLIE 2010
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Thornton has traced bolter to 1812, filibuster to 1863, roorback to 1844, and split-ticket to 1842.
Chapter 3. The Period of Growth. 3. The Expanding Vocabulary Henry Louis 1921
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Dorgan knows how to make the best use of such a roorback on the eve of an election and even if
The Ear in the Wall 1908
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McLoughlin knows how to make the best use of such a roorback on the eve of an election, and even if I not only deny but prove that they are a fake, I'm afraid the harm will be done.
The Poisoned Pen 1908
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Elizur Wright purchased a Whig paper, and seeing a statement in it concerning the Free-soil candidate which he believed from internal evidence to be untrue, he said quite loud: "Well! this is the finest roorback I have met with."
Cambridge Sketches Frank Preston Stearns 1881
mialuthien commented on the word roorback
roorback – a defamatory falsehood published for political effect
July 26, 2008