Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

take the chiltern hundreds

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.49 in modern English

Syllables
take the chiltern hun-dreds
IPA
40
Scrabble Score
23
Letters
2
Syllables
13
Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To vacate one's seat in the House of Commons (since resignation is not permitted), under the legal fiction of being appointed to an "office of profit under the Crown": the ancient office of Crown Steward for the Chiltern Hundreds, in modern times a mere sinecure.

British usage

Usage

Inflected Forms

takes the Chiltern Hundreds (present, singular) taking the Chiltern Hundreds (participle, present) took the Chiltern Hundreds (past) taken the Chiltern Hundreds (participle, past)

Questions

What does take the chiltern hundreds mean?
To vacate one's seat in the House of Commons (since resignation is not permitted), under the legal fiction of being appointed to an "office of profit under the Crown": the ancient office of Crown Steward for the Chiltern Hundreds, in modern times a mere sinecure.

How to pronounce take the chiltern hundreds

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