[roo
r-bak] 
| a false and more or less damaging report circulated for political effect, usually about a candidate seeking an office. |
| roor·back (rŏŏr'bāk') n. A false or slanderous story used for political advantage. [After Baron von Roorback, imaginary author of Roorback's Tour Through the Western and Southern States, from which a passage was purportedly quoted in an attempt to disparage presidential candidate James K. Polk in 1844.] |