English

Alternative forms

• bork

Verb

Bork ‎(third-person singular simple present Borks, present participle Borking, simple past and past participle Borked)

1. (US, politics) To defeat a judicial nomination through a concerted attack on the nominee's character, background and philosophy.
   • 2002, Orrin G. Hatch, Capitol Hill Hearing Testimony before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, in the matter of the Nomination of Charles W. Pickering to be United States Circuit Court Judge for the Fifth Circuit, February 7, 2002

     After an eight-year hiatus, these groups are back on the scene, ready to implement an apparent vicious strategy of Borking any judicial nominee who happens to disagree with their view of how the world should be.

English

Verb

bork ‎(third-person singular simple present borks, present participle borking, simple past and past participle borked)

1. (US, politics, often pejorative) To defeat a judicial nomination through a concerted attack on the nominee's character, background and philosophy.
   • 2002, Orrin G. Hatch, Capital Hill Hearing Testimony before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, February 7, 2002, ^[2]

     After an eight-year hiatus, these groups are back on the scene, ready to implement an apparent vicious strategy of Borking any judicial nominee who happens to disagree with their view of how the world should be.

   • 2004, Mark Tushnet, A Court Divided, p340

     Forcing their adversaries to bork nominees may, they may think, lead voters in the middle to think less well of liberals, enhancing the distaste for Washington politics that has helped conservatives gain political power.

   • 2006, Jeffrey Lord, Borking Rush, in American Spectator, October 30, 2006

     Above all it discusses the best tactics to defeat a borking. Having been in the Reagan White House when Robert Bork was borked, I knew something about the subject, which was a huge help when the same borking guns were turned on my friend Judge Smith years later.

Etymology 2

• Possibly derived from borken, which is an intentional misspelling of the word broken (e.g. The computer is borken). The word is often used in ironic or humorous contexts.
• Possibly derived from usage described under Etymology 1.

Verb

bork ‎(third-person singular simple present borks, present participle borking, simple past borked, past participle borked or borken)

1. (slang) To misconfigure, especially a computer or other complex device.
2. (slang) To break or damage.

References

1. ↑ Higbee, Arthur (1993-01-13), “American Topics”, in International Herald Tribune, International Herald Tribune, archived from the original on 2005-10-26, retrieved 2008-11-14
2. ↑ Hatch, Orrin G. (2007-02-07), “Statement of The Honorable Orrin Hatch”, in The Nomination of Charles W. Pickering to be United States Circuit Court Judge for the Fifth Circuit, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, retrieved 2008-11-14

Norwegian Nynorsk

bork (exterior covering of a tree)

Etymology

From Old Norse bǫrkr.

Noun

bork m ‎(definite singular borken, uncountable)

1. bark (exterior covering of a tree)

   Borken til treet hadde falle av.

   The bark of the tree had fallen off.

2. cortex (outer layer of an internal organ or body structure)

References

• “bork” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.