empty suit

[ emp-tee soot ]

noun

, Slang.

1. an executive, manager, or official regarded as ineffectual, incompetent, or lacking in leadership qualities such as creativity and empathy:

   Their executive search came up with one empty suit after another.

Word History and Origins

Origin of empty suit¹

First recorded in 1950–55; empty ( def ) + suit ( def ) (in the sense “faceless decision maker”)

Idioms and Phrases

An unimportant person; also, a phony. For example, Don't pay any attention to him—he's just an empty suit , or She acts as though she knows what she's doing, but she's really an empty suit . This graphic expression calls up the image of an empty suit of clothes. [c. 1970]

Example Sentences

Remember his summer blitz of attack ads about Obama being an empty suit, a celebrity and a pretty face and all that?

From The Daily Beast

And far from defining him as an empty suit, it suggests he is one filled with both hubris and sanctimony.

From The Daily Beast

Ali had devised a method of protection for the empty suit the Medic would wear—had that held?

From Project Gutenberg

I open the case—I take out the collar—I place it gently on the porch railing—and I take the empty suit-case into the house.

From Project Gutenberg

We furnished him with an empty suit-case, and, from the window, watched him making for Mitre Court at a smart double.

From Project Gutenberg