bork
/ˈbɔːk
/verb [with object] US informal
Obstruct (someone, especially a candidate for public office) by systematically defaming or vilifying them: ‘We're going to bork him’, said an opponent (as noun borking) is fear of borking scaring people from public office?...
- If the Democrats really wanted to stop him, they'd bork him—bork him like nobody has ever been borked before.
- Of course, the fact that the press borked Gore for twenty straight months will seldom be mentioned in the press corps' narrations.
- For five months, I quietly endured the Senator borking me as someone not "committed to bridging differences and bringing peace" and a Washington Post editorial criticizing me as "a destroyer" of cultural bridges, among other slings.
Origin
1980s: from the name of Robert Bork (1927–2012), an American judge whose nomination to the Supreme Court (1987) was rejected following unfavourable publicity for his allegedly extreme views.