kangaroo court
noun
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A kangaroo court has never been a court by or for kangaroos, but beyond that, little is known for sure about the term's origins. Various theories abound: it has been suggested that kangaroo courts got their name because they were initially marked by rapid and unpredictable movement from one place to another, or that they were in some way associated with "jumping" (i.e., illegally occupying) mining claims. These hypotheses are all unsubstantiated, however. What is known is that the first kangaroo courts originated in the United States at approximately the time of the 1849 California Gold Rush, and the word saw its earliest use in the southwestern U.S. It first turned up in print in 1853 in a book about Texas.
Examples of kangaroo court in a Sentence
Louis Casiano, FOXNews.com, 2 Jan. 2026
Kinda like all that Canton surveillance video in 2022 that would have spared Karen Read the burden of having to go through those two trials in the kangaroo court.
—Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 20 Aug. 2025
Chandler complained about her treatment at trial, calling it a kangaroo court.
—Ruth Chenetz, CBS News, 31 May 2025
Each of them struggles with their foreign agent status, hiring lawyers to represent them in kangaroo courts where the verdict has been pre-determined.
—Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Feb. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Kangaroo court.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kangaroo%20court. Accessed 9 Jan. 2026.
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