Definition of 'ivory tower'
Word forms: plural ivory towers
countable noun [NOUN noun]
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
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Word Frequency
ivory tower in British English
noun
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Derived forms
ivory-towered (ˌivory-ˈtowered) adjective
Word Frequency
ivory tower in American English
noun
Most material © 2005, 1997, 1991 by Penguin Random House LLC. Modified entries © 2019
by Penguin Random House LLC and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Derived forms
ivory-towered or ivory-towerish adjective
ivory-towerism or ivorytowerishness
noun
ivory-towerist or ivory-towerite
noun
Word origin
[trans. of F tour d'ivoire, phrase used by C.A. Sainte-Beuve in reference to the isolated life of the poet A.
de Vigny (1837)]Examples of 'ivory tower' in a sentence
ivory tower
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Definition of ivory tower from the Collins English Dictionary
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