Dictionary

kingmake en · VERB

Etymology

Back-formation from kingmaker.

Meanings

1. To use one's influence to help someone else into a position of political power.
   • Okay, you get on the extension in the other room and listen to me kingmake Percy President. 1968, Keefe Brasselle, The Cannibals: A Novel about Television's Savage Chieftains, page 159:
   • "Sol thinks of himself as a kingmaker," she said. "And actually, I suppose he is — " "Why doesn't he kingmake something for himself?" 1988, Barney Leason, Rich and Reckless, →ISBN, page 84:
   • The kingmakers are about to kingmake someone else 1999 May 5, brutus cregan, “SERB MAFIA PUT CONTRACT ON MILO”, in soc.culture.yugoslavia (Usenet):
   • Others over-engineered and made their miners too expensive, whereas Bitmain made it functional and efficient," Mow says, adding: “A slightly different direction killed one company and kingmade another.” 2017 December 31, Bailey Reutzel, Pete Rizzo, “Most Influential in Blockchain 2017 #10: Jihan Wu”, in CoinDesk:
2. To play so as to cause another player to win.
   • If they really can't, they recognize they're kingmakers, and if there's a good reason they kingmake, but even then they usually deal with their predator to buy time and bang on their prey a bit (you never know - now and again it works). 2002 March 26, CurtAdams, “Casual, as opposed to Competitive”, in rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad (Usenet):
   • The point is that the card-play should be the primary factor in determining who gets the more VPs, and who gets the fewer; not someone deciding to just give up and kingmake. 2004 October 12, Derek Ray, “Deals, deals, again...”, in rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad (Usenet):
   • I do dislike it if part of the skill of playing consists of manipulating the people who are out of the running to get them to kingmake for you. 2002 January 12, Kevin Lowe, “"Games and Politics" by Richard Garfield”, in rec.games.board (Usenet):

Forms