beltway bandit
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.77 in modern English
24
Scrabble Score
13
Letters
3
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A consulting or research company that mostly carries out work for US government departments or agencies.
Informal
noun
A short-term money lender to contractors working for the US government but waiting for US congressional appropriations.
Informal
Example Sentences
- "He worked for a beltway bandit firm, doing engineering work. He computed trajectories on missiles... that kind of thing."
- "[He] turned out to be what is called a "Beltway bandit," lending money at short-term high (but legal) rates to government contractors low on cash who are awaiting congressional appropriation funding."