camarilla
Americannoun
PLURAL
camarillasnoun
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012Etymology
Origin of camarilla
1830–40; < Spanish, equivalent to camar ( a ) room (< Latin camera; chamber ) + -illa diminutive suffix < Latin
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They were political Play-Doh, to be massaged and molded as Bush’s camarilla saw fit.
From New York Times
The Democrats then warned of a catastrophe, but the Kremlin camarilla came around.
From Time
Monte-Leone, whom the abuses of the French government and the camarilla of the Tuilleries made most indignant, gave vent to his opinions and complained bitterly of the acts of the ministry.
From Project Gutenberg
The figurative signification of the word camarilla, which, in its literal sense, means a little chamber, is almost too well known, even out of Spain, for an explanation of it to be necessary.
From Project Gutenberg
On July 29, 1914, the well-informed German newspaper, Vorwaerts, declared: "The camarilla of war-lords is working with absolutely unscrupulous means to carry out their fearful designs to precipitate a world war."
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
