veepstakes

Syllables: veep·stakesUK/ˈviːpsteɪks//ˈvipˌsteɪks/

veepstakes noun: the process by which candidates for the Presidency of the United States choose a running mate to become the Vice President if elected.

Noun (1)

veepstakes (plural veepstakes)

(US, humorous, slang) The process by which candidates for the Presidency of the United States choose a running mate to become the Vice President if elected.
- The candidate for the challenging party was undergoing a veepstakes.
- What America needs now is comedy—so hurray, we're getting ready to elect a Vice-President! Sure, we elect a Boss Man too, but it'll be the Veepstakes that'll provide the laughs.1952 May 13, Earl Wilson, “It happened last night: Veepstakes provide laughs even in serious campaign”, in W. E. Christenson, editor, Evening World-Herald, number 222, Omaha, Neb.: World Publishing...

Noun (2) capitalized: Veepstakes

Veepstakes (plural Veepstakes)

Alternative letter-case form of veepstakes.
- What America needs now is comedy—so hurray, we're getting ready to elect a Vice-President! Sure, we elect a Boss Man too, but it'll be the Veepstakes that'll provide the laughs.1952 May 13, Earl Wilson, “It happened last night: Veepstakes provide laughs even in serious campaign”, in W. E. Christenson, editor, Evening World-Herald, number 222, Omaha, Neb.: World Publishing...
- If [Spiro] Agnew abandoned his inflammatory rhetoric during the 1972 campaign, he did not abandon his corrosive wit altogether. The more restrained Agnew twitted Sargent Shriver, the Democratic candidate in the Veepstakes, on his personal wealth.1994, Gerald [Clifford] Gardner, “Campaign 1972: So I Made a Mistake”, in Campaign Comedy: Political Humor from Clinton to Kennedy (Humor in Life and Letters), Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University...

Examples of veepstakes in a sentence

[Barbara] Mikulski, who is 47, is the least chic of the women mentioned in the veepstakes.1984 June, Kaye Northcott, “Campaign 84: Only a Heartbeat Away: Will the Next Vice President of the United States be a Woman?”, in Deirdre...
It’s a particularly acute concern in television and politics—ratings, veepstakes, poll numbers, the kind of things that mean everything and nothing in Washington.2008 June 15, Mark Leibovich, “Tiny town: Washington after a fall”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company...
The above is worth remembering as the presidential race turns the corner into its most feverishly speculative, excessively breathless phase: the veepstakes.2012 April 2, Frank Bruni, “And now, the veepstakes”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC...
Harris’s choice will come down to “who can have the hard conversations”, a former Harris aide turned US senator said as the “veepstakes” neared their conclusion.2024 August 3, Martin Pengelly, “Crunch time in ‘veepstakes’ as Kamala Harris prepares to choose running mate”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Forms of veepstakes

plural	veepstakes
alternative form	Veepstakes
plural	Veepstakes

Origin of veepstakes

Blend of veep (“(informal) Vice President of the United States”) + sweepstakes (plural of sweepstake (“lottery in which the prize or prizes constitute all the money paid by the participants”)).

Questions about veepstakes

What does veepstakes mean?: Veepstakes means the process by which candidates for the Presidency of the United States choose a running mate to become the Vice President if elected.
How do you use veepstakes in a sentence?: [Barbara] Mikulski, who is 47, is the least chic of the women mentioned in the veepstakes.
What part of speech is veepstakes?: Veepstakes is a noun.
How do you pronounce veepstakes?: Veepstakes is pronounced /ˈviːpsteɪks/ (UK).
What is the plural of veepstakes?: The plural of veepstakes is veepstakes.

Words near veepstakes in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: veepstakes (page history and authors); Veepstakes (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-veepstakes.oga.

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