Boodler

noun, slang

noun, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One, especially a politician, who seeks or receives boodle; a political grafter.

    "Boodlers, according to the dealers in boodle, are divided into two categories, the honest and the dishonest boodlers. The honest boodler is the alderman who, when bought, stays bought,' and does not sell out to the other side; the dishonest boodler is perfectly willing to take money from both sides and dispose of his vote, not according to the first bid, but the last."

  2. 2
    A person displaying unsportsmanlike behavior. dated, obsolete, slang

Example

More examples

"Boodlers, according to the dealers in boodle, are divided into two categories, the honest and the dishonest boodlers. The honest boodler is the alderman who, when bought, stays bought,' and does not sell out to the other side; the dishonest boodler is perfectly willing to take money from both sides and dispose of his vote, not according to the first bid, but the last."

Etymology

From boodle + -er.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.