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Gerrymander vs Filibuster - What's the difference?

gerrymander | filibuster |

As verbs the difference between gerrymander and filibuster

is that gerrymander is (pejorative) to divide a geographic area into voting districts in such a way as to give an unfair advantage to one party in an election while filibuster is to take part in a private military action in a foreign country.

As nouns the difference between gerrymander and filibuster

is that gerrymander is (pejorative) the act of gerrymandering while filibuster is a freebooter, or mercenary soldier.

gerrymander

English

Verb

(en verb) (gerrymandering)
  • (pejorative) To divide a geographic area into voting districts in such a way as to give an unfair advantage to one party in an election.
  • (transitive, pejorative, by extension) To draw dividing lines for other types of districts in an unintuitive way to favor a particular group or for other perceived gain.
    • The superintendent helped gerrymander the school district lines in order to keep the children of the wealthy gated community in the better school all the way across town.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (pejorative) The act of gerrymandering.
    • By this iniquitous practice, which is known as the gerrymander , the party in a minority in each State is allowed to get only about one-half or one-quarter of its proper share of representation.
  • (pejorative) A voting district skewed by gerrymandering.
    • Any citizen looking at a map of district 12 could immediately tell that it was a gerrymander because of the ridiculous way it cut across 4 counties while carving up neighborhoods in half.

    Derived terms

    * gerrymandering English eponyms

    filibuster

    English

    (wikipedia filibuster)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A freebooter, or mercenary soldier.
    • 1890' ''These duties involved prodigious physical and mental exertion, in a climate deadly to Europeans. They also involved much voyaging in waters haunted by '''filibusters''' and buccaneers. But nothing appears to daunt Labat. As for the '''filibusters , he becomes their comrade and personal friend; – he even becomes their chaplain, and does not scruple to make excursions with them.'' — Lafcadio Hearn, '' Two Years in the French West Indies.
  • (US, politics) A delaying tactic, especially the use of long, often irrelevant speeches given in order to delay progress or the making of a decision, especially on the floor of the US Senate.
  • * 2010 , "An own goal on gay rights", The Economist , 14 Oct 2010:
    • Then, last month, before the survey was finished and for reasons still unclear, the Democrats abruptly tried to attach a repeal of the law to the defence appropriations bill, a stratagem the Republicans defeated in a filibuster .
  • (US, politics) A member of a legislative body causing such obstruction.

    • Synonyms

    * (mercenary soldier) see

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To take part in a private military action in a foreign country.
  • (US, politics) To use obstructionist tactics in a legislative body.
  • * 1919 , William Roscoe Thayer, Theodore Roosevelt: An Intimate Biography , Chapter 11.:
    • But as the case had dragged on interminably, and he believed, and the world believed, and the Canadians themselves knew, that they intended to filibuster and postpone as long as possible, he took the common-sense way to a settlement.