Definition of "incumbent" []

• Imposed as an obligation or duty; obligatory: felt it was incumbent on us all to help. (adjective)
• Lying, leaning, or resting on something else: incumbent rock strata. (adjective)
• Currently holding a specified office: the incumbent mayor. (adjective)
• A person who holds an office or ecclesiastical benefice: The incumbent was reelected to another term. (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.

• "Khosla went after what he called "incumbent capitalism," in which government policy and incentives are designed not to encourage competition and innovation, but to protect entrenched incumbent interests, with coal, oil, nuclear, and utility monopolies being the most spectacular beneficiaries of this bias against innovation."
• "They 're trying to, and sort of -- I was in the Eighth District, where Patrick Murphy, the incumbent, two-term incumbent, is facing off against Mike Fitzpatrick, a former congressman."
• "If the incumbent is a Republican, then my anti-incumbent fever is very strong."