Idiom
emperor's new clothes
Meaning
Something obvious and embarrassing that is politely ignored or that goes unacknowledged.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Everyone pretends the bad plan works, but it is the emperor's new clothes.”
“The manager's new policy is clearly a disaster, yet nobody mentions it, treating the whole situation like the emperor's new clothes.”
“By praising the flawed project to avoid conflict, the board members participated in a collective delusion that resembled the emperor's new clothes.”
Examples
simple
“Everyone pretends the bad plan works, but it is the emperor's new clothes.”
contextual
“The manager's new policy is clearly a disaster, yet nobody mentions it, treating the whole situation like the emperor's new clothes.”
complex
“By praising the flawed project to avoid conflict, the board members participated in a collective delusion that resembled the emperor's new clothes.”
Origin
After The Emperor's New Clothes, a tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.
Key words
Related idioms
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