Dictionary

empty-suited en · ADJ

Etymology

From empty suit + -ed.

Meanings

1. (derogatory, slang) Of or characteristic of an empty suit.
   • Instead he came across as an empty-suited, bloodless chief executive with a more expensive haircut than John Edwards. 2019, Charles Reilly, Man of Letters, The Very Best of Reilly’s Letters Published in the L.A. Times:
   • He’s a “fucking moron”, a useless dummy, not a leader or an executive. Just a reality teevee refugee. An actor and a grifter with no administrative skills whatsoever, so he turns it over to his defective, evil, incompetent freak of a son-in-law and his empty suited, mannequin of a Vice President. 2020 April 4, Fred Oinka, “Emperor Trump*”, in alt.slack (Usenet):
   • neither the unclothed Bride nor the empty-suited "suitors" ever cross panes to connect or to evolve apart from their perpetual motion machines. 2000, Elizabeth Haas, Performing Barbara Stanwyck, 1922-1964, page 102:
   • traits not high on her list when she'd limited herself to all those glamorous but empty-suited men. 1991, Judy Kuriansky, How to Love a Nice Guy, page 69:
   • Within this world, some of the characters are stock types, beginning with Bruce Davison's guileful opportunist and Kevin O'Rourke's empty-suited gladhander. 1987, New York Times & Arno Press (publisher), The New York Times Theater Reviews, page 156:
   • So the empty-suited politician who has done nothing but stand in the way of American success in Iraq, who, along with the rest of his sorry-ass Party, has advocated American retreat and defeat at every turn, is somehow "the beneficiary" of the hard-won military and political victory his opponents achieved in the face of withering criticism, calumny, and lies from every quarter, including Obama himself. 2008, Rush H. Limbaugh (contributor), The Limbaugh Letter, volume 17, page 2:
   • This, dear readers, is the fundamental difference between an empty-suited celebrity and a nuts-and-bolts executive: flim-flam artistry vs. substance and real results. 2009 August 12, jose el fontanero, alt.politics.bush (Usenet):

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