ivory tower

ivory tower
ivory-towered, ivory-towerish, adj.ivory-towerism, ivorytowerishness, n.ivory-towerist, ivory-towerite, n.
1. a place or situation remote from worldly or practical affairs: the university as an ivory tower.
2. an attitude of aloofness from or disdain or disregard for worldly or practical affairs: his ivory tower of complacency.
[trans. of F tour d'ivoire, phrase used by C.A. Sainte-Beuve in reference to the isolated life of the poet A. de Vigny (1837)]

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Universalium. 2010.

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