gerrymander

1. (transitive, derogatory) To divide a geographic area into voting districts in such a way as to give an unfair advantage to one party in an election.derogatorytransitive

2. (transitive, derogatory, by extension) To draw dividing lines for other types of districts in an unintuitive way to favor a particular group or for other perceived gain.Examples: "The superintendent helped gerrymander the school district lines in order to keep the children of the wealthy gated community in the better school all the way across town."broadlyderogatorytransitive

3. (transitive, derogatory, by extension) To change the franchise or voting system in such a way as to give an unfair advantage to one party in an election.Examples: "[The Reform Bill's] main purpose will be so to gerrymander the electorate as to give the greatest possible assistance to the Radical party at the next election."; "But Remainers often picture [Brexit] instead as the upshot of a poorly framed question put to an ill-informed, and underrepresentative segment of the population – even the product of a 'gerrymander'."; "Congress delegated to the first legislature the task of setting up elections under territorial law, which it did. But Montana Democrats couldn't pass up the opportunity to gerrymander the rules."broadlyderogatorytransitive

4. (transitive, derogatory, by extension, chiefly UK and Ireland) To deliberately bring in voters of one's own party or displace voters of another party from a voting district in such a way as to give an unfair advantage to one party in an election.Examples: "Westminster City Council has been accused by the District Auditor of using public money to gerrymander marginal wards for the 1990 Borough elections. The strategy of attempting to 'gentrify' eight key wards, selling off council homes and hostels for the homeless to move out potential Labour voters and attract in more Conservative voters, was in conflict with the council's statutory duty to homeless people"; "Fermanagh Council even went so far as to create the new village of Donagh in an attempt to move Catholics out of Newtownbutler, four miles away, so unionists could gerrymander a majority."IrelandUKbroadlyderogatorytransitive