gayola
gayola noun: the practice of American police departments extorting bribes from gay bars, especially in the 1950s and 60s, in return for not raiding them; such a bribe.
Noun
gayola (uncountable)
- The practice of American police departments extorting bribes from gay bars, especially in the 1950s and 60s, in return for not raiding them; such a bribe.
- Every one of the bars that testified against the police department during the gayola inquiry was shut down.1998, The American Journey: Derived from retrieving the American past, →ISBN
- Policing power over gay bars was thus shifted from the SFPD's beat officers to the mayor and the chief of police. In the wake of the gayola scandal Mayor Christopher launched an offensive against homosexual drinking establishments.2006, Journal of the History of Sexuality
Origin of gayola
From gay + -ola.
Words that rhyme with gayola
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- ebola
- granola
- idola
- Iola
- minneola
- pianola
- stola
- tombola
- Akmola
- arteriola
- blogola
- boffola
- bola
- braciola
- Carniola
- cashola
- caveola
- Coca Cola
- Coca-Cola
- crapola
- eidola
- gladiola
- gorgonzola
- hemiola
- hideola
- Hispaniola
- hola
- lola
- mandola
- mineola
- mola
- mola mola
- Motorola
- moviola
- Ndola
- nola
- payola
- Pensacola
- plugola
- Poehler
- pseudovariola
- pyrola
- salsola
- scagliola
- Shinola
- shola
- solah
- tetracola
Questions about gayola
- What does gayola mean?
- Gayola means the practice of American police departments extorting bribes from gay bars, especially in the 1950s and 60s, in return for not raiding them; such a bribe.
- What part of speech is gayola?
- Gayola is a noun.
Words near gayola in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gayola (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “gayola.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gayola. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.