lobby
verb/ˈlɒbi/
/ˈlɑːbi/
[transitive, intransitive]Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they lobby | /ˈlɒbi/ /ˈlɑːbi/ |
| he / she / it lobbies | /ˈlɒbiz/ /ˈlɑːbiz/ |
| past simple lobbied | /ˈlɒbid/ /ˈlɑːbid/ |
| past participle lobbied | /ˈlɒbid/ /ˈlɑːbid/ |
| -ing form lobbying | /ˈlɒbiɪŋ/ /ˈlɑːbiɪŋ/ |
- lobby (somebody) (for/against something) to try to influence a politician or the government and, for example, persuade them to support or oppose a change in the law
- Farmers will lobby Congress for higher subsidies.
- Locals are lobbying to have the river dredged every three years.
Culture lobbyinglobbyingLobbying is the practice of approaching politicians in order to persuade them to support a particular aim or cause, and to speak about it and draw attention to it. In the US this means trying to obtain the support of members of Congress or a state legislature (= people making laws at state level). In Britain lobbying involves persuading MPs or members of the House of Lords to speak in parliament and the same is true for members of the Scottish Parliament or Welsh Assembly.Anyone can write to their MP or a member of Congress, or organize a petition (= a formal request signed by many people) about an issue. In Britain anyone can create an online petition about anything that the government is responsible for and, if it at least 100,000 people sign it, it will be considered for debate in the House of Commons. Most lobbying is done by pressure groups or by professional lobbyists. Pressure groups work as representatives of a particular section of society or for a specific issue or cause. Many employ full-time liaison officers to develop contacts with politicians who are likely to support them. In Britain some MPs are employed by pressure groups as consultants. They have to give details of such employment in a special Register of Members' Financial Interests.Large companies use professional lobbyists to keep them informed of what is being discussed in Congress or Parliament and to try to persuade politicians to put forward their point of view in debates. In the US lobbyists provide information to politicians, sometimes by giving evidence before Congress. They also try to influence the way members of Congress vote, for example by persuading them that a certain policy will be popular with the people they represent. Lobbyists may try to influence politicians by inviting them to lunch or dinner in an expensive restaurant or to a party. There are rules limiting what gifts politicians can accept and any gifts must be reported, but there are ways of getting around these laws. Some organizations have many lobbyists who are very active. In 2006 there was a political scandal when a lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, was charged with corruption.In Britain the methods which lobbyists use to influence MPs, and the question of whether MPs should be connected with lobbyists at all, came to public attention in 1996 when two MPs were accused of taking money in exchange for asking questions in Parliament. It became known as the cash for questions affair and led to the setting up of the Committee on Standards in Public Life and the publishing of the Register of Members' Financial Interests for each new Parliament.Extra ExamplesTopics Discussion and agreementc1, Politicsc1- The organization has been set up to lobby the government on behalf of all the people who have lost their pensions.
- Head teachers have been lobbying hard against education cuts.
- They have been lobbying UN officials for months now.
- The group successfully lobbied for changes in the law.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- actively
- aggressively
- hard
- …
- against
- for
- on behalf of
- …
Word Originmid 16th cent. (in the sense ‘monastic cloister’): from medieval Latin lobia, lobium ‘covered walk, portico’. The verb sense (originally US) derives from the practice of frequenting the lobby of a house of legislature to influence its members into supporting a cause.Definitions on the go
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