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rubber stamp, n. (phr.) and v.
[rubber n.1 III.]
A. n. (phr.)
1. (See quot. 1888.) Also, the imprint of such a stamp.
1881Instructions Clerks Census Eng. & Wales (1885) 158/2 Rubber Stamp Maker. 1888Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 115 Rubber stamps, hand stamps cast in vulcanized india-rubber. 1954Koestler Invisible Writing iv. xxxix. 420 Queuing up each time..to obtain the rubber-stamp which granted a further stay of a day or a week. 1957E. H. Gombrich Story of Art xiv. 203 The result looked like any rubber stamp we use today, and the principle of printing it on paper was practically the same. 1975J. van de Wetering Outsider in Amsterdam (1976) ii. 24 They looked at the imprint of the rubber stamp and the signature.
2. fig. Used of a person or institution whose power is formal but not real; a person who or body which endorses uncritically.
1919W. R. Thayer Theodore Roosevelt xxi. 334 He may have heard the exhortation ‘Be your own President; don't be anybody's man or rubber stamp.’ 1943Ann. Reg. 1942 235 This new body..was not to have any of the traditional attributes of a Spanish Cortes. It was to be..an assemblage of Government nominees and notables, a rubber stamp. 1956A. Wilson Anglo-Saxon Att. ii. i. 196 The danger of the oldest of all representative bodies becoming a mere rubber stamp. 1965Listener 3 June 823/2 The regional councils were attacked as being mere rubber stamps for the regional boards. 1976Survey Winter 66 The governmental assemblies..are most certainly not rubber stamps for the decisions of their respective executives.
b. attrib. or as adj.
1931Government of Oxford 5 Others believe that..interest would be stimulated if Congregation could be relieved of its ‘rubber stamp’ duties. 1940Manch. Guardian Weekly 29 Mar. 252 Lord Samuel transfixed the 1931–5 Parliament in a phrase: he called it ‘The rubber-stamp Parliament’. 1946W. S. Churchill Victory 197 Equal opportunity for all, under free institutions and equal laws—there is the banner for which we will do battle against all rubber-stamp bureaucracies or dictatorships. 1953Manch. Guardian Weekly 8 Oct. 7 The President does not want a ‘rubber-stamp’ Congress. 1977Time 14 Mar. 23/1 This month's session of the People's Assembly, Burma's rubber-stamp parliament.
B. v. (With hyphen.) trans.
a. To mark with the imprint of a rubber stamp; to print with a rubber stamp.
1922Hotel World 13 May 2 No hotel would rubber-stamp its stationery. 1965M. Spark Mandelbaum Gate iv. 113 Abdul went to start rubber-stamping the soles of smuggled sandals. 1973Radio Times 50th Anniv. Souvenir 66/1 I'd written a fan letter to Bing Crosby... I received a photo of him back—with his autograph rubber-stamped across it.
b. fig. To endorse or approve uncritically; to pass routinely or automatically.
1934Webster, Rubber-stamp, v.t. a. To sign with a rubber stamp. b. Hence figuratively, to approve, endorse, or dispose of (as a document or policy) as a matter of routine, usually without the exercise of one's judgment. 1935Ann. Reg. 1934 304 Moreover the Democrats in Congress were completely at one with the Republicans..in their dislike at appearing merely to ‘rubber-stamp’ measures drafted by the President. 1959News Chron. 8 July 1/1 We do not believe that the purpose of a conference of our type is to rubber-stamp every declaration. 1978S. Brill Teamsters i. 15 The current trustees..had rubber-stamped loans to mob fronts.
Hence rubber-ˈstamping ppl. a. and vbl. n.; rubber-ˈstampish a. [-ish1], quasi-automatic, almost purely formal.
1932L. C. Douglas Forgive us Our Trespasses (1937) ix. 183 An hour and a half was spent..in a rubber-stampish approval of the ‘tentative suggestions’ sent from the faculty ‘as a basis of discussion’. 1952‘M. Cost’ Hour Awaits 24 The first letter of 1919—its address almost obliterated by rubber-stampings. 1958Sunday Times 20 Apr. 16/4 He is, in a sense, a dictator, for..the Constituent Assembly is virtually a rubber-stamping body. 1969Daily Tel. 26 Aug. 14 A fresh round of repressive legislation, including instant loss of employment for all who question the official line in deed or word, was all ready for rubber-stamping. 1979China Now Mar./Apr. 3/3 A central working conference..took decisions of far-reaching importance. These decisions were..not just a rubber-stamping of proposals. |