Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A group of confidential, often scheming advisers; a cabal.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A company of secret counselors or advisers; a cabal; a clique.
  • noun Synonyms Faction, Junto, etc. See cabal.
  • noun A small chamber or cell, as in the brain.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The private audience chamber of a king.
  • noun A company of secret and irresponsible advisers, as of a king; a cabal or clique.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A secret, usually sinister, group of conspiring advisors close to the leadership; a cabal

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a clique (often secret) that seeks power usually through intrigue

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Spanish, diminutive of cámara, room, from Late Latin camera; see chamber.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Spanish camarilla, from cámara ("chamber") and the diminutive suffix -illa.

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Examples

  • The only part he can be said to have taken in public life as yet is having called the imperial attention to the Maximilian Harden allegations regarding Count Eulenburg and a court "camarilla," referred to later, and having, while sitting in a gallery of the

    William of Germany Stanley Shaw

  • Trust Teofan, but make an end of the ecclesiastical camarilla which is against thee. "

    The Minister of Evil The Secret History of Rasputin's Betrayal of Russia William Le Queux 1895

  • It will, you may be sure, do what it can to help the Europhile Gordon Brown camarilla to hang onto power - a rebate here, a bung there - but Labour only has a date with electoral oblivion.

    Archive 2008-08-24 2008

  • It will, you may be sure, do what it can to help the Europhile Gordon Brown camarilla to hang onto power - a rebate here, a bung there - but Labour only has a date with electoral oblivion.

    Softly Softly Catchee Monkey 2008

  • On the other hand Labour might have a rush of blood and evict Our Dear Leader (in itself something which the electorate do not like as it sees doing that as its prerogative and do not like it being done by a small camarilla of scheming putschists) and foist Miliband or harperson on us.

    Archive 2008-08-03 2008

  • On the other hand Labour might have a rush of blood and evict Our Dear Leader (in itself something which the electorate do not like as it sees doing that as its prerogative and do not like it being done by a small camarilla of scheming putschists) and foist Miliband or harperson on us.

    Et tu, Miliband, Byers, Clarke, Milburn..... 2008

  • Thirdly all of us who hate and despise the Act and its camarilla of class warfare supporters will engage in much hollow laughter that the best the LACS can do is pick upon a couple of lurchermen who seem to have gone about their business in a particularly unsubtle way, so inviting prosecution under some law or another.

    Hobday Misses Point as Ostrich Sticks Head in Sand 2007

  • Thirdly all of us who hate and despise the Act and its camarilla of class warfare supporters will engage in much hollow laughter that the best the LACS can do is pick upon a couple of lurchermen who seem to have gone about their business in a particularly unsubtle way, so inviting prosecution under some law or another.

    Archive 2007-07-01 2007

  • Call it the Van Diepen Demarche, since the Chinese camarilla can boast that even America's intelligence estimate concludes the mullahs shuttered their nuclear weapons program more than four years ago.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2007

  • Call it the Van Diepen Demarche, since the Chinese camarilla can boast that even America's intelligence estimate concludes the mullahs shuttered their nuclear weapons program more than four years ago.

    The war within the west 2007

Comments

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  • ~a group of unofficial often secret and scheming advisors; a cabal

    January 17, 2009

  • Les éminences grises, qu'est-ce qu'il y a?

    In Paris, Madrid or Manila,

    Behind every throne

    (It's very well known),

    There gathers a dim camarilla.

    June 15, 2015