Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context now rare English) A barrel used to store pork. (from 18th c.) 2 (context chiefly US English) A ready supply of income; one's livelihood. (from 19th c.) 3 (context politics chiefly US English) State funds as assigned for local or regional expenditure; especially, central money used for regional projects which are eyecatching or designed to appeal to voters. (from 19th c.)
WordNet
n. a legislative appropriation designed to ingratiate legislators with their constituents [syn: pork]
Wikipedia
Pork barrel is a metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district. The usage originated in American English. In election campaigns, the term is used in derogatory fashion to attack opponents. However, scholars use it as a technical term regarding legislative control of local appropriations.
Usage examples of "pork barrel".
Santry was trying to dismember my ribs with a butcher knife he'd got out of the pork barrel, so I picked up the pickle barrel and busted it over his head.
Jack said, 'Those Sunday Report guys are usually pretty good at catching people with their hands in the pork barrel.
Luckily, I killed mine be forehand and it is now in the pork barrel.
Less than half of those 34 votes he needs for acquittal are up for reelection in '74, and any incumbent president -- even one who's already been impeached -- has a massive amount of leverage when it comes to using the political pork barrel.
Captain Nicholl caught Jud Hetchkins stealing from the pork barrel.
Public servants in both countries, shorn of their propaganda machines and their power to coerce through pork barrel and security apparatus, would shrink to more human di.