circular firing squad
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.73 in modern English
37
Scrabble Score
19
Letters
5
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A political party or other group experiencing considerable disarray because the members are engaging in internal disputes and mutual recrimination.
Example Sentences
- ""What we're seeing here is a kind of circular firing squad, with everybody standing in a circle pointing fingers at the person beside them," said Representative Robert S. Walker of Pennsylvania, the chief deputy Republican whip."
- "He said it was not the party that had lost the last election, but the "circular firing squad" of MPs."
- "[J]ust about everyone who helped create this mess is busy pointing fingers, scapegoating the other guys, firing the lower-downs and diming out the higher-ups. Last week what was once envisioned as a new kind of company resembled little more than a circular firing squad of executives, accountants, consultants and lawyers."