mutual admiration society
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU): (file)
Noun
mutual admiration society (plural mutual admiration societies)
- (idiomatic, derogatory) A group of two or more people, in a workplace or other social environment, who routinely express considerable esteem and support for one another, sometimes to the point of exaggeration or pretense.
- Those two are incessantly flattering one another. They've formed an utterly nauseating mutual admiration society!
- 1824, The Westminster Review, Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy (London), p. 400:
- And the said members did accordingly resolve themselves into a little "mutual admiration society" for the entertainment and benefit of their visitors.
- 1872, Edward Payson Roe, Barriers Burned Away, ch. 32:
- The note is from a special friend of yours; indeed I think you form a little mutual-admiration society.
- 1889, Fergus Hume, Madame Midas, ch. 13:
- Vandeloup smiled at this, and came to the conclusion that the Wopples family was a mutual admiration society.
- 1919, Virginia Woolf, Night and Day, ch. 26:
- If you don't want a mutual admiration society, which dies as soon as you've all discovered each other's faults, you must nobble the Press.
- 2007 July 17, Bill Gallo, "Signs of DiMaggio's greatness," New York Daily News:
- Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays had a mutual admiration society and the Clipper was happy to put his respect into writing.
Usage notes
- Matt Dubey's lyrics for the 1956 Broadway musical Happy Hunting, became an instant hit and brought the term into common use:
- We belong to a mutual admiration society.
Translations
group
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References
- "mutual admiration society" in The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Houghton Mifflin Company. Retrieved 16 May 2007.
- "mutual admiration society" in The Canadian Oxford Dictionary. Oxford University Press 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Retrieved 16 May 2007.
- Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989. See "mutual admiration society," under "mutual."