lobby

noun (plural lobbies)

• 1a room providing a space out of which one or more other rooms or corridors lead, typically one near the entrance of a public building: they went into the hotel lobby

• 2(in the UK) any of several large halls in the Houses of Parliament in which MPs may meet members of the public.
• (also division lobby) (in the UK) each of two corridors in the Houses of Parliament to which MPs retire to vote.
• (the lobby) informal (in the UK) lobby correspondents collectively.

• 3a group of people seeking to influence legislators on a particular issue:members of the anti-abortion lobby
• [in singular] an organized attempt by members of the public to influence legislators:a recent lobby of Parliament by pensioners

verb (lobbies, lobbying, lobbied)

• seek to influence (a legislator) on an issue:they insist on their right to lobby Congress [no object]:the organization was formed to lobby for student concerns