Word.ws English Dictionary

Ponytailgate

Ponytailgate proper noun: a 2015 controversy around the alleged pulling of the hair of a young waitress by New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key.

Proper noun

Ponytailgate

  1. (informal) A 2015 controversy around the alleged pulling of the hair of a young waitress by New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key.
    • Teflon John's approval rating in the wake of what came to be known as 'Ponytailgate' actually increased.2021, Supriya Vani, Carl A. Harte, Jacinda Ardern: Leading with Empathy

Origin of Ponytailgate

From ponytail + -gate.

Questions about Ponytailgate

What does Ponytailgate mean?
Ponytailgate means a 2015 controversy around the alleged pulling of the hair of a young waitress by New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key.
What part of speech is Ponytailgate?
Ponytailgate is a proper noun.

Words near Ponytailgate in the dictionary

  1. ponytail palm
  2. ponytail palms
  3. ponytailed
  4. ponytailer
  5. ponytailers
  6. Ponytailgate
  7. ponytailing
  8. ponytails
  9. Ponza
  10. Ponzi
  11. Ponzi game

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Ponytailgate (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.

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Cite this entry: “Ponytailgate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ponytailgate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.