filabuster

Noun

filibuster (plural filibusters)

1. (historical) A mercenary soldier; a freebooter; specifically, a mercenary who travelled illegally in an organized group from the United States to a country in Central America or the Spanish West Indies in the mid-19th century seeking economic and political benefits through armed force.
   • 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...1890, Lafcadio Hearn, Two Years in the French West Indies, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Bros., →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   adventurer, bravo, condottiere, freebooter, freelance, free companion, hired gun, hireling, hit man, merc

2. (US) A tactic (such as giving long, often irrelevant speeches) employed to delay the proceedings of, or the making of a decision by, a legislative body, particularly the United States Senate.
   • No longer do filibustering Senators take the floor and speak until they are physically unable to filibuster any longer. Now, a filibuster typically begins when a Senator or group of Senators signals their intent to filibuster – which can be done by a private conversation with the majority leader or...2010 April 22, Mimi Murray Digby Marziani, Diana Lee, “Statement for the Record, Brennan Center for Justice, New York, NY”, in Examining the Filibuster: Hearings before the Committee on Rules and...

   Antonyms:

   cloture

3. (US) A member of a legislative body causing such an obstruction.

   Synonyms:

   filibusterer

See all 5 meanings of filibuster