a government appropriation, bill, or policy that supplies funds for local improvements designed to ingratiate legislators with their constituents.
Origin
1905-10, Americanism
Related forms
pork-barrel, adjective
pork-barreling, adjective, noun
Examples from the web for pork barrel
Time for space exploration to take a back seat to pork barrel.
The logic should be lower taxes and zero pork barrel.
Right-wing critics sneer that this is a pork barrel for obscurantist, lefty pc historians, but they are wrong.
It is a plan that's been put together without earmarks or the usual pork barrel spending.
The line item veto proposal has long been championed as a device to reduce pork barrel spending.
Big government and pork barrel spending have fostered a lack of leadership and focus.
British Dictionary definitions for pork barrel
pork barrel
noun
1.
(slang, mainly US)
a bill or project requiring considerable government spending in a locality to the benefit of the legislator's constituents
(as modifier): pork-barrel spending
Word Origin
C20: term originally applied to the Federal treasury considered as a source of lucrative grants
Slang definitions & phrases for pork barrel
pork barrel
adjective
Involving spending large amounts of money in an area that generates consumer popularity
noun
A legislative appropriation designed to ingratiate legislators with their constituents (1909+)
Idioms and Phrases with pork barrel
pork barrel
Government funding of something that benefits a particular district, whose legislator thereby wins favor with local voters. For example, Our senator knows the value of the pork barrel. This expression alludes to the fatness of pork, equated with political largesse since the mid-1800s. [ c. 1900 ]