clique
[kleek, klik]
noun
a small, exclusive group of people; coterie; set.
verb (used without object), cliqued, cli·quing.
Informal. to form, or associate in, a clique.
RELATED CONTENT
RELATED WORDS
clan, cabal, coterie, faction, posse, gang, mob, Mafia, lobby, set, crowd, club, camp, outfit, crew, crush, society, bunch, organization, circle
Nearby words
- clipping,
- clippingly,
- clipshears,
- clipsheet,
- clipt,
- cliquey,
- cliquish,
- cliquishly,
- clishmaclaver,
- clisis
Origin of clique
1705–15; < French, apparently metaphorical use of Middle French clique latch, or noun derivative of cliquer to make noise, resound, imitative word parallel to click1
Synonym study
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for clique
clique
noun
Word Origin for clique
C18: from French, perhaps from Old French: latch, from cliquer to click; suggestive of the necessity to exclude nonmembers
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
clique
1711, "a party of persons; a small set, especially one associating for exclusivity," from obsolete French clique, originally (14c.) "a sharp noise," also "latch, bolt of a door," from Old French cliquer "click, clatter, crackle, clink," 13c., echoic. Apparently this word was at one time treated in French as the equivalent of claque (q.v.) and partook of that word's theatrical sense.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper