Reform Act (Re¦form Act)

noun

• an act framed to amend the system of parliamentary representation, especially any of those introduced in Britain during the 19th century.

• The first Reform Act (1832) disenfranchised various rotten boroughs and lowered the property qualification, widening the electorate by about 50 per cent to include most of the male members of the upper middle class. The second (1867) doubled the electorate to about 2 million men by again lowering the property qualification, and the third (1884) increased it to about 5 million