shrub or small tree having flattened globose fruit with very sweet aromatic pulp and thin yellow-orange to flame-orange rind that is loose and easily removed; native to southeastern Asia
<noun.plant>
a member of an elite intellectual or cultural group
<noun.person>
any high government official or bureaucrat
<noun.person>
a high public official of imperial China
<noun.person>
a somewhat flat reddish-orange loose skinned citrus of China
<noun.food>
the dialect of Chinese spoken in Beijing and adopted as the official language for all of China
<noun.communication>
Mandarin \Man`da*rin"\, n. [Pg. mandarim, from Malay mantr[=i] minister of state, prop. a Hind. word, fr. Skr. mantrin a counselor, manira a counsel, man to think.] 1. A Chinese public officer or nobleman; a civil or military official in China and Annam.
2. Hence: A powerful government official or bureaucrat, especially one who is pedantic and has a strong sense of his own importance and privelege. [PJC]
3. Hence: A member of an influential, powerful or elite group, espcially within artistic or intellectual circles; -- used especially of elder members who are traditionalist or conservative about their specialties. [PJC]
5. The form of the Chinese language spoken by members of the Chinese Imperial Court an officials of the empire. [PJC]
6. Any of several closely related dialects of the Chinese language spoken by a mojority of the population of China, the standard variety of which is spoken in the region around Beijing. [PJC]
7. (Bot.) A small flattish reddish-orange loose-skinned orange, with an easily separable rind. It is thought to be of Chinese origin, and is counted a distinct species ({Citrus reticulata} formerly {Citrus nobilis}); called also {mandarin orange} and {tangerine}.
{Mandarin language}, the spoken or colloquial language of educated people in China.
{Mandarin yellow} (Chem.), an artificial aniline dyestuff used for coloring silk and wool, and regarded as a complex derivative of quinoline.
There is heavy emphasis on reds and pinks from smoky and tea rose to mandarin orange, Day-Glo or shocking pink.
This interview serves to draw proper attention to the importance of The Adventures of Augie Marsh, and Bellow's discovery that it was necessary to move on from the English mandarin model - 'I wanted to invent a new sort of American sentence.
He is too comfortable with himself, which makes the discomfort he inflicts on others unacceptable; less a rigorous crusade for truth than mandarin contempt for inferiors.
The fictional colleague in the TV show was a "mandarin."
Together we went to see the executive editor, a journalistic mandarin I had talked to only once or twice in the years I had worked for the paper.
Give him the clothes and he'll play the part.' This is despite the fact that in many ways Sir Terry is the antithesis of the traditional, smooth-talking Treasury mandarin.
Not even a police escort was enough to get German foreign office mandarin Dieter Kastrup to his desk through yesterday's left-wing demonstration in Bonn against the tightening-up of asylum laws.
Mr. Pebereau's fall as a mandarin and rise as a new-style capitalist tells something about how the European establishment is changing.