Word.ws English Dictionary

Portillo moment

Portillo moment noun: an election loss for a prominent politician.

Noun

Portillo moment (plural Portillo moments)

  1. (UK) An election loss for a prominent politician.
    • But with FF seat losses by the dozen all over the country, the Portillo moments were stacked on several levels, like a good tin of biscuits.2013, Paddy Duffy, Did That Actually Happen?: A Journey Through Unbelievable Moments in Irish Politics, Hachette UK, →ISBN
    • Possibly the biggest Portillo moment north of the border, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury is also in danger of losing his seat according to the marginal polls.2015 May 7, Sebastian Payne, “Election night: the ten ‘Portillo moments’ to watch out for”, in The Spectator

Synonyms of Portillo moment

Forms of Portillo moment

pluralPortillo moments

Origin of Portillo moment

Originally referred to the 1997 United Kingdom general election in which Michael Portillo, a prominent Conservative representing what was thought to be a safe seat, unexpectedly lost to the Labour candidate.

Questions about Portillo moment

What does Portillo moment mean?
Portillo moment means an election loss for a prominent politician.
What part of speech is Portillo moment?
Portillo moment is a noun.
What is the plural of Portillo moment?
The plural of Portillo moment is Portillo moments.

Words near Portillo moment in the dictionary

  1. Portilla
  2. Portillas
  3. Portillista
  4. Portillistas
  5. Portillo
  6. Portillo moment
  7. Portillo moments
  8. Portilloism
  9. Portillos
  10. porting
  11. Portingal

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Portillo moment (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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