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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

us-and-them en · ADJ

Meanings

  1. (not-comparable) Being or pertaining to a divisive belief whereby those outside one's immediate circle are regarded as enemies.
    • […] one of the major concerns by staff is the lack of social contact with an SMT and an 'us and them' syndrome developing. 1992, Jack Dunham, Stress in Teaching:
    • We described above how a solution to the problem of interpersonal feuding has been to devolve such feuds to an authority such as the police. But what if the police behave in an us-and-them way? 2006, Keith Oatley, Dacher Keltner, Jennifer M Jenkins, Understanding Emotions:
    • Good football teams always have an us-and-them mentality; there are the 45 players and their coaches, and then there is everybody else. 1987, New York Magazine:

Relateds

for me and not for thee · us versus them · us-and-them-ism · campism