claque
Americannoun
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a group of persons hired to applaud an act or performer.
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a group of sycophants.
The agency head was applauded, as always, by a claque of appointees.
noun
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a group of people hired to applaud
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a group of fawning admirers
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of claque
First recorded in 1860–65; from French, derivative of claquer “to clap”
Vocabulary lists containing claque
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.
See Examples For:
Beginning as a feud between culturally ambitious game critics and a claque of revanchist fans, Gamergate became a free-floating snowball of grievance.
From The Verge ● Dec. 12, 2019
Cutting-edge fashion, as defined by a noisy claque of magazine editors and bloggers, is not their friend, they know.
From New York Times ● Sep. 18, 2017
There’s a claque alongside to cheer the big boss and deride his doubters.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 13, 2017
He enrolled at the Kunstakademie, an avant-garde hotbed soon dominated by Joseph Beuys, the shamanistic godfather of conceptualism—although Richter was always highly skeptical of the hero-worshipping claque Beuys gathered around himself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2016
It would be more correct to say that since neither needed a claque I was forgotten on the sidelines.
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
In French theatre, groups of professional clappers, known as "claques", were hired by performers to make them appear more popular with audiences.
From BBC ● May 28, 2015
At a time when claques are disappearing from many of the world's opera houses, the La Scala group is one of the best in the house's long history.
From Time Magazine Archive
Most modern poets use a language so private that it divorces them from all but their private claques.
From Time Magazine Archive
Although claques are still common in Italian opera houses, none in years have been organized with the same flair and genius for detail.
From Time Magazine Archive
But putting aside claques, it remains true that an audience will often heartily enjoy what a critic will heartily damn—sometimes in half a dozen papers, your capable critic being like a six-barrelled revolver.
From Without Prejudice by Zangwill, Israel
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.
