See Also: mandarin(medicine)
mandarin(dictionary)
Fan's Mandarin(tourism)
Mandarin(encyclopedia)
mandarin(2)(dictionary)
mandarin(1)(dictionary)
Mandarin(tourism)
MANDARIN ENT(finance)
Mandarin Airlines(tourism)
Silk Mandarin(tourism)

mandarin(1) (iou)



mandarin noun1 & adjective. Also mandarine; (esp. in sense A.2) Mandarin. L16.
[Portuguese mandarim alt. of Malay menteri from Sanskrit mantri, mantrin counsellor, minister. Cf. MANTRI, MENTRI.]
A. noun.
a. Hist. A member of each of the nine grades of Chinese officials under the Empire, selected by examination. Formerly also, any of various other Asian officials. L16.
b. A toy figure in Chinese costume, so contrived as to continue nodding for a long time after being shaken. L18.
c. A person of much importance; esp. a leading government official or politician, a reactionary or secretive bureaucrat. E20.
Mail on Sunday Civil servants dropping into private..jobs with salaries..three times what they earned as Whitehall mandarins.
(Mandarin.) The form of the Chinese language formerly used by officials and educated people generally; any of the varieties of this used as a standard language in China, spec. the northern variety. E18.
b. Obscure or esoteric language. M20.
ellipt. = mandarin duck below. M19.
b. attrib. or as adjective.
Of or pertaining to mandarins or a Mandarin. E17.
P. Goodman A mandarin bureaucracy is valuable..because of the vastness of the underlying population.
Esoteric, consciously superior, (of style) affectedly ornate or complex. E20.
Listener The conventionally acceptable accents and Mandarin prose we learn at school.
Special collocations & comb.: mandarin coat a loose silk coat with a mandarin collar. mandarin collar a narrow collar standing up from a close-fitting neckline and not quite meeting in front. mandarin duck a duck with bright and variegated plumage, Aix galericulata, native to eastern Asia and naturalized in Britain. mandarin jacket: with a mandarin collar. mandarin porcelain oriental (esp. Japanese) porcelain decorated with figures of mandarins. mandarin sleeve a wide loose sleeve. mandarin vase a vase of mandarin porcelain.
mandarinism noun (a) the mandarin system, government by mandarins; (b) (an example of) pedantry, highbrow or esoteric study: M19.
mandarinship noun the position, office, or rank of a mandarin L17.