name, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Proper Noun

1. 1
   A 1981 controversy around allegations that the staff of US politician Jerry Brown deliberately destroyed computer cards in order to obstruct an investigation into his campaign. US, slang
2. 2
   A 1978 controversy around Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser's decision to award a bid for computer systems to IBM rather than the cheaper FACOM. Australia, slang

Etymology

From computer + -gate.

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