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Potomac fever

Potomac fever noun: synonym of Potomac horse fever.

Noun

Potomac fever (uncountable)

  1. Synonym of Potomac horse fever.
  2. (informal) A desire for political power.
    • Or maybe he just had a severe case of Potomac fever. It affects most congressmen and senators sooner or later: an atrophy of the sense of humility, a swelling of the glands of arrogance.1991, Tom Sehler, When Reason Sleeps, page 4
    • After years of resisting Potomac fever, was she experiencing the initial symptoms ofthis dreaded disease? Was she capitulating toa base instinct for power?2011, Roger Herst, Rabbi Gabrielle's Defiance

Synonyms of Potomac fever

Origin of Potomac fever

(desire for political power): In reference to the Potomac river running through Washington, D.C., seat of US politics.

Questions about Potomac fever

What does Potomac fever mean?
Potomac fever means synonym of Potomac horse fever.
What part of speech is Potomac fever?
Potomac fever is a noun.

Words near Potomac fever in the dictionary

  1. Potogee
  2. Potogees
  3. Potok
  4. Potol
  5. Potomac
  6. Potomac fever
  7. Potomac horse fever
  8. potomania
  9. potomato
  10. potomatoes
  11. potometer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Potomac fever (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: “Potomac fever.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/potomac_fever. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.