Definitions

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

  • noun A small exclusive group of friends or associates.
  • intransitive verb To form, associate in, or act as a clique.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To form cliques or exclusive sets; associate together in cliques, usually with unworthy or selfish motives.
  • noun A party; a set; a coterie; specifically, a body or group of persons associated informally for some exclusive or intriguing purpose.

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

  • noun A narrow circle of persons associated by common interests or for the accomplishment of a common purpose; -- generally used in a bad sense.
  • intransitive verb To To associate together in a clannish way; to act with others secretly to gain a desired end; to plot; -- used with together.

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

  • noun A small, exclusive group of individuals; cabal
  • noun graph theory A subgraph isomorphic to a complete graph.
  • noun Internet A group of related web sites that link to each other, like a webring but with exclusive membership determined by the clique owner.
  • verb To associate together in a clannish way; to act with others secretly to gain a desired end; to plot.

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

  • noun an exclusive circle of people with a common purpose

Etymologies

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

[French, from Old French, latch or from obsolete French cliquer, to click, clink, of imitative origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French clique

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Examples

Comments

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  • A fully connected subgraph.

    April 17, 2007

  • Wordie.

    June 26, 2007