subs. phr. (political).—A constituency in which votes are controlled by one man: theoretically, since the Reform Act of 1832, a thing of the past; TO POCKET A BOROUGH = to control votes.
1872. G. ELIOT, Middlemarch, xlvi. “When I think of Burke I can’t help wishing somebody had a POCKET-BOROUGH to give you, Ladislaw.”… “POCKET-BOROUGHS would be a fine thing,” said Ladislaw, “if they were always in the right pocket, and there were always a “Burke at hand.”
1882. J. SCHOULER, History of the United States of America under the Constitution, i. 10. He was … loyal to some one of the blood families who contended for the honor of POCKETING the borough in which he voted.
