Rotten borough : n : an English parliamentary constituency with few electors
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Rotten \Rot"ten\, a. [Icel. rotinn; akin to Sw. rutten, Dan.
radden. See Rot.]
Having rotted; putrid; decayed; as, a rotten apple; rotten
meat. Hence:
(a) Offensive to the smell; fetid; disgusting.
You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate As reek
of the rotten fens. --Shak.
(b) Not firm or trusty; unsound; defective; treacherous;
unsafe; as, a rotten plank, bone, stone. ``The deepness
of the rotten way.'' --Knolles.
Rotten borough. See under Borough.
Rotten stone (Min.), a soft stone, called also Tripoli
(from the country from which it was formerly brought),
used in all sorts of finer grinding and polishing in the
arts, and for cleaning metallic substances. The name is
also given to other friable siliceous stones applied to
like uses.
Syn: Putrefied; decayed; carious; defective; unsound;
corrupt; deceitful; treacherous. -- Rot"ten*ly, adv.
-- Rot"ten*ness, n.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Borough \Bor"ough\, n. [OE. burgh, burw, boru, port, town,
burrow, AS. burh, burg; akin to Icel., Sw., & Dan. borg, OS.
& D. burg, OHG. puruc, purc, MHG. burc, G. burg, Goth.
ba['u]rgs; and from the root of AS. beorgan to hide, save,
defend, G. bergen; or perh. from that of AS. beorg hill,
mountain. [root]95. See Bury, v. t., and cf. Burrow,
Burg, Bury, n., Burgess, Iceberg, Borrow, Harbor,
Hauberk.]
1. In England, an incorporated town that is not a city; also,
a town that sends members to parliament; in Scotland, a
body corporate, consisting of the inhabitants of a certain
district, erected by the sovereign, with a certain
jurisdiction; in America, an incorporated town or village,
as in Pennsylvania and Connecticut. --Burrill. Erskine.
2. The collective body of citizens or inhabitants of a
borough; as, the borough voted to lay a tax.
Close borough, or Pocket borough, a borough having the
right of sending a member to Parliament, whose nomination
is in the hands of a single person.
Rotten borough, a name given to any borough which, at the
time of the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832, contained
but few voters, yet retained the privilege of sending a
member to Parliament.
