mandarin
/ˈmæn.də.ɹɪn/ noun B2- A high government bureaucrat of the Chinese Empire.
- A pedantic or elitist bureaucrat.
- A pedantic senior person of influence in academia or literary circles.
- A figurine of a Chinese person with movable head that was popular in the 1950s. (Cf. bobblehead.)
Plural mandarins
From the library
The bad side of human thought will always be defined by the paradox of Jean Jacques Rousseau,—you remember,—the mandarin who is killed five hundred leagues off by raising the tip of the finger.
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