clique

Pluralcliques

Formscliques, cliquing, cliqued

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A small group of people who stick together and keep others out.

   Like a club that only lets in its own friends.

   The popular kids formed a clique and never let anyone else sit with them.

   She felt left out because the clique ignored her at lunch.

   Similarcircle, coterie, set, faction, clan

   Note
2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To join with a few others and stay apart from everyone else, often to get your own way.

   Like a small group of friends who whisper plans and shut others out.

   The older students clique together and rarely talk to anyone new.

   They cliqued up against the new manager from the first day.

   Similarconspire, plot, scheme, collude

   Note
3. 3
   nouncountable

   In math, a group of dots in a network where each dot connects to all the others.

   Like a group of friends where everyone knows everyone else directly.

   In the puzzle, three dots formed a clique because each one linked to the other two.

   The team looked for the biggest clique in the web of connections.

   Note
4. 4
   nouncountable

   A set of related websites that link to each other, where the owner chooses who can join.

   Like a small club of websites that only friends can join.

   She built a clique of fan websites that all linked back to each other.

   You had to ask the owner before joining the clique of art sites.

   Note

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