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ivory tower
noun
- a place or situation remote from worldly or practical affairs:
the university as an ivory tower.
- an attitude of aloofness from or disdain or disregard for worldly or practical affairs:
his ivory tower of complacency.
ivory tower
/ ˈtaʊə /
noun
- seclusion or remoteness of attitude regarding real problems, everyday life, etc
- ( as modifier )
ivory-tower aestheticism
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Derived Forms
- ˌivory-ˈtowered, adjective
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Other Words From
- ivo·ry-towered ivo·ry-tower·ish adjective
- ivo·ry-tower·ism ivo·rytower·ish·ness noun
- ivo·ry-tower·ist ivo·ry-tower·ite noun
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Word History and Origins
Origin of ivory tower1
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Idioms and Phrases
A place or attitude of retreat, remoteness from everyday affairs, as in What does the professor know about student life, living as he does in an ivory tower? This term is a translation of the French tour d'ivoire , which the critic Saint-Beuve used to describe the attitude of poet Alfred de Vigny in 1837. It is used most often in reference to intellectuals and artists who remain complacently aloof.Discover More
Example Sentences
He needs to come down from his ivory tower and listen to people.
The review in question is “A Tocqueville for Today,” written by Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, two ivory tower heavyweights.
Convincing the Ivory Tower decision-makers may take quite an effort if they choose to share TV revenues.
Our paralysis amidst this paradox is not helped by the way it has taken hold inside the ivory tower itself.
He takes on higher education in his new documentary, Ivory Tower, which premiered at Sundance.
The vein holds from beginning to end of his work; from this writing of the eighties to "The Ivory Tower."
"The Ivory Tower," full of accumulated perceptions, swift illuminating phrases, perhaps part of a masterpiece.
He sought a refuge from his sufferings in his own ivory tower; these sufferings themselves were to him a source of observations.
Our only refuge was the ivory tower of the poets whither we climbed higher and higher to escape the crowd.
All life has streamed into your soul, and you have lived in the ivory tower.
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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.
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