Meaning & use

pork barrel

noun·Advanced

Government spending on local projects mainly intended to please voters or reward political supporters.

See it in a sentence

Critics called the new bridge a classic pork-barrel project with little real need.

Lawmakers added several pork-barrel items to the bill to win votes from their districts.

A note on using this word

Pork barrel is often used as an adjective, as in pork-barrel spending or pork-barrel politics.

Words with a similar meaning

This term is best learned through its definition and examples.

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “pork barrel”, then compare your use with the examples above.

Your draft stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.