Definition of "highbinder" []

• A corrupt politician. (noun)
• A member of a Chinese-American secret society of paid assassins and blackmailers. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It may be that the Chinese 'highbinder' has a discrete origin: thus Asbury _Barbary Coast_ 1933 185: 'The _boo how doy_, popularly known as hatchetmen or highbinders, received regular salaries, with extra pay for exceptional bravery in battle.'"
• "The Senator is just not the highbinder you may have imagined."
• "Ah Sing in the swelling of commendable pride, at having outwitted the most notorious highbinder in Chinatown, built him a house that was quite large enough to swing a cat in, and as gorgeous inside as a joss house, and quite as dingy without, with the wisdom of Confucius done in very large characters on very red paper pasted all about the front door."