English Explanatory Dictionary

Sir Humphrey

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A high-ranking bureaucrat, particularly one who is elitist and deliberately obscure.

Word forms

Sir Humphrey Sir Humphreys

Etymology

From the fictional character Sir Humphrey Appleby, a self-important, Oxford-educated civil servant first depicted in the 1980 premiere of the BBC television series Yes Minister.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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