rubber stamp
a device with a rubber printing surface that becomes coated with ink by being pressed on an ink-saturated pad, used for imprinting dates, addresses, standard designations or notices, etc., by hand.
a person or government agency that gives approval automatically or routinely.
such approval.
Origin of rubber stamp
1Other definitions for rubber-stamp (2 of 2)
to imprint with a rubber stamp.
to give approval automatically or without consideration: to rubber-stamp the president's proposals.
tending to give approval automatically or without due consideration: a rubber-stamp Congress that passed all the president's bills.
Origin of rubber-stamp
2Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use rubber stamp in a sentence
He withheld the salaries of parliamentarians who refused to rubberstamp his laws, and lawyers who challenged him were disbarred.
Forget Kim Jong Un—China’s New Favorite Dictator Is Belarus’s Aleksandr Lukashenko. | Kapil Komireddi | January 28, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThey want a rubberstamp who will vote for their plans to expand government, increase debt and raise taxes.
British Dictionary definitions for rubber stamp
a device used for imprinting dates or commonly used phrases on forms, invoices, etc
automatic authorization of a payment, proposal, etc, without challenge
a person who makes such automatic authorizations; a cipher or person of little account
to imprint (forms, invoices, etc) with a rubber stamp
informal to approve automatically
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with rubber stamp
A person or organization that automatically approves or endorses a policy without assessing its merit; also, such an approval or endorsement. For example, The nominating committee is merely a rubber stamp; they approve anyone the chairman names, or The dean gave his rubber stamp to the recommendations of the tenure committee. This metaphoric term alludes to the rubber printing device used to imprint the same words over and over. [Early 1900s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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