Meanings
plural machine politicians
- USA politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends.
It wasn't that these ward bosses were universally bad men, but the qualities that made for a successful machine politician or boss were the opposite of those that made for an honest public servant.
2021, Mark Lawrence Schrad, Smashing the Liquor Machine: A Global History of Prohibition, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 413
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Cite this entry
machine politician. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/machine%20politician
“machine politician.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/machine%20politician. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “machine politician,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/machine%20politician.
Source: machine politician on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.