kingmake

Back-formation from kingmaker.

kingmake (third-person singular simple present kingmakes, present participle kingmaking, simple past and past participle kingmade)

1. To use one's influence to help someone else into a position of political power.
   • 1968, Keefe Brasselle, The Cannibals: A Novel about Television's Savage Chieftains, page 159:

     Okay, you get on the extension in the other room and listen to me kingmake Percy President.

   • 1988, Barney Leason, Rich and Reckless, →ISBN, page 84:

     "Sol thinks of himself as a kingmaker," she said. "And actually, I suppose he is — " "Why doesn't he kingmake something for himself?"

   • 1999 May 5, brutus cregan, “SERB MAFIA PUT CONTRACT ON MILO”, in soc.culture.yugoslavia (Usenet):

     The kingmakers are about to kingmake someone else

   • 2017 December 31, Bailey Reutzel, Pete Rizzo, “Most Influential in Blockchain 2017 #10: Jihan Wu”, in CoinDesk:

     Others over-engineered and made their miners too expensive, whereas Bitmain made it functional and efficient," Mow says, adding: “A slightly different direction killed one company and kingmade another.”

2. (gaming) To play so as to cause another player to win.
   • 2002 January 12, Kevin Lowe, “"Games and Politics" by Richard Garfield”, in rec.games.board (Usenet):

     I do dislike it if part of the skill of playing consists of manipulating the people who are out of the running to get them to kingmake for you.

   • 2002 March 26, CurtAdams, “Casual, as opposed to Competitive”, in rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad (Usenet):

     If they really can't, they recognize they're kingmakers, and if there's a good reason they kingmake, but even then they usually deal with their predator to buy time and bang on their prey a bit (you never know - now and again it works).

   • 2004 October 12, Derek Ray, “Deals, deals, again...”, in rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad (Usenet):

     The point is that the card-play should be the primary factor in determining who gets the more VPs, and who gets the fewer; not someone deciding to just give up and kingmake.

• make-king