mugwump

Plural: mugwumps

Noun

• A person who remains independent in politics, often with a pompous air.
• someone who bolted from the Republican Party during the U.S. presidential election of 1884
• a neutral or uncommitted person (especially in politics)
• A (male) leader; an important (male) person.
• A member of the Republican Party who declined to support the party's nominee James G. Blaine (1830–1893) during the 1884 United States presidential election, believing him to be corrupt, and instead supported the Democratic Party's candidate Grover Cleveland (1837–1908).
• A person who purports to stay aloof from party politics.
• One who switches from supporting one political party to another, especially for personal benefit.
• A person who stays neutral or non-committal; a fence sitter; also, a person who maintains an aloof and often self-important demeanour.
• A foolish person.

Verb

• To behave like a mugwump.
• To purport to stay aloof and independent, especially from party politics.

Examples

• He was a Scrabble mugwump, refusing to join any strategy groups and playing solely on instinct.

Synonyms

fencesitter, independent, VIP, baron, big cheese, big enchilada, big gun, big kahuna, big man, big name, big noise, big shot, big wheel, bigwig, boss, grand poobah, head honcho, heavy hitter, heavyweight, high muckamuck, high muckety-muck, king of all one surveys, king of the castle, king of the hill, kingpin, macher, mayor, muckamuck, muckety muck, mugwump, numero uno, poobah, rooster, somebody, top banana, top cat, top dog, top gun, very important person, wheel

Antonyms

big cheese, big hitter, big wheel, important person, somebody