[f. prec. sb]
1. intr. To act as a filibuster.
1853. Longf., in Life (1891), II. 247. Intelligent youths, but rather inclined to filibustering in Cuba.
1862. S. Lucas, Secularia, 135. He prayed with fervour as he went fillibustering.
b. quasi-trans. Also trans. To subject to the methods of a filibuster.
1862. B. Taylor, Home & Abroad, Ser. II. ii. 67. When the inmates [of a prison] have enjoyed a satisfactory period of rest and seclusion, they join in companies, and filibuster their way out.
1887. L. Oliphant, Episodes, 122. I was actively engaged for a fortnight endeavouring to filibuster a constituency.
2. U.S. To obstruct progress in a legislative assembly; to practise obstruction.
1882. Sir M. H. Beach, in Standard, 24 March, 3/2. The objectionable practices of ‘filibustering’ and ‘stone-walling.’
1885. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 20 Feb., 2/3. Ex-Confederates Filibuster to Prevent a Vote on the Bill.
Hence Filibustering vbl. sb., also attrib. and ppl. a.; also Filibusterer, one who filibusters.
1856. Tait’s Mag., XXIII. 433. They are willing to find a safety valve for a portion of their filibusterers and loafers.
1856. Gentl. Mag., New Ser. I. 111/1. The President has recognised Walker, the filibustering chief of Nicaragua.
1857. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alteram Partem, I. xxiv. 89. America has long been engaged in two courses of avowed and notable injustice, ‘filibustering’ and slave-dealing. Ibid., Nobody would look to filibusters for economy or forethought; nor to a filibustering nation.
1899. Jephson, Brittany, ii. 14. Of these palmy days of trading and filibustering prosperity, the large and handsome houses, with high-peaked roofs and portes-cochères, preserve a melancholy record.
1885. Times (weekly ed.), 23 Jan., 1/2. A flibustering expedition to Cuba is being prepared.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., I. I. x. 137. Till recently, systematic obstruction, or, as it is called in America, ‘filibustering,’ familiar to the House, was almost unknown in the calmer air of the Senate.
1893. Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, 5 Dec. He found that the men … were high-minded, law-abiding citizens instead of filibusterers.
