Definition of "crony" [cro•ny]

• A longtime close friend or companion. (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.

• "But at a Conservatives4Palin gathering Friday night in a restaurant near Des Moines, many in the crowd of 180 - about half of whom had traveled from Texas - repeatedly used the phrase "crony capitalism" to describe what they didn't like about their state's chief executive."
• "The phrase "crony capitalism" is one Palin used in a speech in Iowa last weekend and repeated last night. notes on its website that less than one percent of recipients reported "adverse events" after receiving the vaccine."
• "That's why the term crony capitalism is increasingly used."