Dumbocracy

noun, slang

noun, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A democracy, particularly an ineffective or dysfunctional one. derogatory, slang, uncountable, usually

    "Democratic Hot Shot from a Republican Standpoint. Don’t vote for [George Hunt] Pendleton and poverty. The dumbocracy and aristocracy all support Pendleton and poverty. […] The Democracy are economical. That’s the reason they fail to pay the interest on the State debt, and pocketed the cash instead. No economy about paying your debts, from a Democratic standpoint."

Example

More examples

"Democratic Hot Shot from a Republican Standpoint. Don’t vote for [George Hunt] Pendleton and poverty. The dumbocracy and aristocracy all support Pendleton and poverty. […] The Democracy are economical. That’s the reason they fail to pay the interest on the State debt, and pocketed the cash instead. No economy about paying your debts, from a Democratic standpoint."

Etymology

Blend of dumb + democracy or dumb + -o- + -cracy. First use appears c. 1869.

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