Sekirov Dictionary

mandarin

/ˈmæn.də.ɹɪn/

noun 10
adjective 1
forms 3

noun10

A small, sweet citrus fruit.
Ellipsis of mandarin orange.
•
A pedantic or elitist bureaucrat.
- The mandarins who are managing this pandemic are fond of speaking of war. — 2020
•
A pedantic senior person of influence in academia or literary circles.
- When mandarins on the court pointed to obscure language in the Constitution to overturn a century of precedent and declare the income tax unconstitutional, Harlan sided with precedent[.] — 2021
(UK, informal) A senior civil servant.
(historical) A high government bureaucrat of the Chinese Empire.
An orange colour.
A tree of the species Citrus reticulata.
Ellipsis of mandarin duck.
A figurine of a Chinese person with movable head that was popular in the 1950s. (Cf. bobblehead.)

adjective1

•
Pertaining to or reminiscent of mandarins; deliberately superior or complex; esoteric, highbrow, obscurantist.
- A mandarin impassivity had descended over Smiley's face. The earlier emotion was quite gone. — 1979

forms

mandarins · more mandarin · most mandarin

This dictionary works without the internet: on your phone · in Chrome