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A.Word.A.Day--pocket veto

pocket veto (POK-it VEE-toh) noun

An indirect veto of a bill as a result of the president's failure to sign it within ten days of the adjournment of Congress; a similar holding of a bill by a state governor or other executive.

[From the notion that the bill is held in the pocket unsigned. From Latin veto (I forbid).]

"President Clinton blocked a similar bill from becoming law with a pocket veto last December." Jake Lewis, Bankrupt Policies, Multinational Monitor (Washington), May 2001.

This week's theme: words with presidential connections.

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