DCHP-2

log-rolling † DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

• 1a n. — Obs.

  See also: logging (def. 1a)  

  • 1796  One other field of six acres, three of which are wheat stubble and potatoe land; the rest wanting a few days of log rolling to make it a good piece for corn.

• 1b n. — Hist.

  a gathering of neighbors to clear land by logging.

  See also: logging bee  

  • 1946  . . . the great virtue was neighborliness, manifesting itself in bees, barn­raisings, log-rollings. . . .

• 2 n.

  the practice of exchanging favors for political ends.

  See also: logging bee  

  • The term derives from the pioneer practice of neighbor helping neighbor in the work of clearing land. See logging bee.

  • 1854  Under the good old log-rolling system which prevailed in the Upper Canada legislature before the Union, such works as the Welland and St. Lawrence Canals could only obtain votes upon the principle of perfect reciprocity.
  • 1916  . . . the system of provincial grants for road-building too often meant log-rolling and corruption. . . .
  • 1946  Members tried to serve the interests of their constituents by obtaining cash grants towards this local project or that: thus was built up the famous practice of "log-rolling." Just as the neighbours got together to roll up the newly-cut logs from a clearing into piles for burning, so the members "rolled up" each others' financial logs.

• 3 n.

  the act of birling logs, especially in competition.

  See also: birling  

  • 1925  The sports committee had arranged a . . . list of events [including] a log-rolling contest between a man from the State of Maine and a citizen of New Brunswick.
  • 1957  Horizontally inclined is Bill Fontana, a lumberjack who taught his pet Dalmation log-rolling in the Ontario bush.
  • 1966  [Caption] June and Arne Wickheim demonstrate log rolling skill. The Sooke, B.C., brothers will organize logging sports at Expo '67 World's Fair.