act of Congress

noun

Etymology

From the literal sense of act (“legislation”) enacted by US Congress.

Definitions

  1. A statute enacted by the United States Congress.

  2. An authorization that is extremely difficult to obtain, especially in a timely fashion.

    • Does it take an act of Congress just to get a stop sign on a corner?
    • Should Frederick stick around — and apparently it would take an act of Congress to get him out of the ICU — he might take up where Molly had brutally left off.
    • Since it seemed like getting a glass of wine was going to require an act of Congress, I quickly agreed.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for act of Congress. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA