ivory tower

noun
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.
Origin
translation of French tour d'ivoire, phrase used by C.A. Sainte-Beuve in reference to the isolated life of the poet A. de Vigny (1837)
Related forms
ivory-towered, ivory-towerish, adjective
ivory-towerism, ivorytowerishness, noun
ivory-towerist, ivory-towerite, noun
Examples from the web for ivory tower
  • Living on the bridge between the ivory tower and where the rubber hits the road for policy makers, we're constantly learning.
  • He was absolutely not shut away in some ivory tower somewhere.
  • It is no longer enough to sit in an ivory tower looking down on the world.
  • But some parts of the ivory tower have proved harder to occupy than others.
  • Perhaps it is time to crack a window in that ivory tower of yours.
  • Many view life outside the ivory tower as tawdry, tedious, and intellectually vacuous.
  • Managing from an ivory tower is never as good as actually engaging.
  • The wise must descend from the ivory tower to interact with people of all levels.
  • But they have now been around for so long that they are also being discussed and dissected in the ivory tower.
  • ivory tower types should not be in charge of economies.
British Dictionary definitions for ivory tower

ivory tower

/ˈtaʊə/
noun
1.
  1. seclusion or remoteness of attitude regarding real problems, everyday life, etc
  2. (as modifier): ivory-tower aestheticism
Derived Forms
ivory-towered, adjective
Word Origin and History for ivory tower
n.

as a symbol of artistic or intellectual aloofness, by 1889, from French tour d'ivoire, used in 1837 by critic Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804-1869) with reference to the poet Alfred de Vigny, whom he accused of excessive aloofness.

Et Vigny, plus secret, comme en sa tour d'ivoire, avant midi rentrait. [Sainte-Beuve, "Pensées d'Août, à M. Villemain," 1837]
Used earlier as a type of a wonder or a symbol of "the ideal." The literal image is perhaps from Song of Solomon [vii:4]:
Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus. [KJV]

Slang definitions & phrases for ivory tower

ivory tower

noun

A place or attitude of retreat, especially preoccupation with lofty, remote, or intellectual considerations: Come out of that ivory tower


Idioms and Phrases with ivory tower

ivory tower

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.