Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A group of persons hired to applaud at a performance.
- n. A group of fawning admirers.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In theaters, a set of men, called claqueurs, distributed through the audience, and hired to applaud the piece or the actors; the system of paid applause. This method of aiding the success of public performances is very ancient; but it first became a permanent system, openly organized and controlled by the claqueurs themselves, in Paris at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
- n. Hence Any band of admirers applauding and praising from interested motives.
Wiktionary
- n. A group of people hired to attend a performance and to either applaud or boo.
- n. A group of people who pre-arrange among themselves to express strong support for an idea, so as to give the false impression of a wider consensus.
- n. A group of fawning admirers.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A collection of persons employed to applaud at a theatrical exhibition.
- n. a group of sycophantic followers.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a group of followers hired to applaud at a performance
Etymologies
- French, from claquer, to clap, of imitative origin.
Examples
“At one public meeting open to all a 'claque' of Islamists urged the adoption of Sharia Law (the first time I heard mention of this name for the summary justice system of the theocrats).”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“Oscar faced the American Philistine public without his accustomed "claque", and under these circumstances a half-success was evidence of considerable power.”
Oscar Wilde His Life and Confessions
“His publishers have now thought it worthwhile to bring out Bolaño's very first published novel, The Skating Rink, hoping for a readership quite different from the tiny claque which greeted its first publication in 1993.”
“Is that crisis likely to go away after an emboldened army of the righteous (and well-financed claque of self-styled "economically responsible" free market boosters) won more nominal power?”
The Huffington Post: Danny Schechter: After the Election, What About the Economy?
“I wonder if anyone else has noticed that whenever a black conservative voices an opinion, the liberal claque insists that he's not an authentic black, and when a white conservative voices an opinion, Obama's sycophants insist he's not an authentic American.”
“Cracks' On the subject of reimagined history, there's a vicious little claque at the center of the period piece "Cracks," the curiosity from Jordan Scott daughter of Ridley, niece of Tony, which brings to mind both "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and "Lord of the Flies.”
“I hesitate to use the word “claque,” but the guys are behind me all the way on this one, and the place erupts with a noise not heard since Jason Varitek stuffed his catcher's mitt in Alex Rodriguez's mug.”
“In that sense Labour and its lickspittle claque of hangers-on has done us all a great service and has ensured that Mr. Wilders and his views get enormous publicity.”
“This claque of journalists and pundits rooted overtly for Bush's transfiguration which they seemed convinced was inevitable, if it wasn't already happening right before their eyes.”
George Bush's last second chance and the American refutation of the Book of Ecclesiastes
“In their complete indifference to facts, the media sound like a claque that talks only to one another.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘claque’.
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Of Imitative Origin
Words formed in imitation of the sound of the things they signify.
bawl, biff, blizzard, blob, blooper, bob, boff, bomb, bonkers, boo, borborygmus, brouhaha and 148 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Awesome onomatopoeiac words
madmouth whattabuncha claquetty-claqueurs! Jun 1, 2009
johnmperry also colloquial for the tongue Jun 17, 2008