ivory tower

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ivory tower

A place or attitude of retreat, especially preoccupation with lofty, remote, or intellectual considerations rather than practical everyday life.

[Translation of French tour d'ivoire : tour, tower + de, of + ivoire, ivory.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ivory tower

a. seclusion or remoteness of attitude regarding real problems, everyday life, etc

b. (as modifier): ivory-tower aestheticism.

ˌivory-ˈtowered adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

i′vory tow′er

1. a place or situation remote from worldly or practical affairs: the university as an ivory tower.

2. an attitude of aloofness from or disdain or disregard for worldly or practical affairs.

[translation of French tour d'ivoire, phrase used by C. A. Sainte-Beuve in reference to the isolated life of the poet A. de Vigny (1837)]

i′vory-tow′ered, i′vory-tow′er•ish, adj.

ivory tower

- Suggests elegant detachment in a cool, white aerie, where a poet or philosopher might retreat to think and write.

ivory tower

A place or way of life that is cut off from the unpleasant realities.

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Noun

ivory tower - a state of mind that is discussed as if it were a place; "he lived in the ivory tower of speculation"; "they viewed universities as ivory towers"

cognitive state, state of mind - the state of a person's cognitive processes

Translations

Elfenbeinturm

tour d’ivoire

torre d'avorio

ivory tower

n (fig) → Elfenbeinturm m

adj attr → weltfremd

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

ivory tower

n → torre f d'avorio

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

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Our politicians and pundits often echo this populist anti-intellectualism, ridiculing ivory tower academics who don't understand the real world.

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And like King, Dyson's world is not limited to the ivory tower and church halls.

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Professor Adeyemi, who is also the chairman, Governing Council, The Polytechnic Ibadan, Oyo state stated this last week Thursday while delivering his valedictory lecture, entitled: 'The Ivory Tower: Town and Gown in Contemporary Nigeria,' which was the second in the series of valedictory lectures in the university.

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I expect you will have a bird's eye view of the ensuing chaos at St Mary's Place from your ivory tower in the Civic Centre.

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He is sitting in his ivory tower, his millionaire's palace, so it's easy for him to say.

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LOCAL government minister Eric-in-a-Pickle is clearly having the waters surrounding any election of a Boris Johnson-style mayor for Liverpool muddied by increasingly nervous witterings at the top of the coalition ivory tower.

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The Justice Secretary was full of his usual bluster yesterday, yet we urge him to come down from his ivory tower.

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Watch out for the new Ivory Tower that will be erected to house this new council.

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And, in sharp contrast with the ivory tower education of the First Minister, his experience of further education was distinctly red-brick.

The Valleys' boy made good/Ron Davies

This is a very limited view from the ivory tower through a tiny peephole.

Banging the Bucket. (Controversy)

"GRRN is a group of people from the trenches, not your ivory tower types, who know you change the world one company, one electoral office, one country at a time."