empty-suited

adjective

Of or characteristic of an empty suit.

Meanings

adjectiveempty-suited (comparative more empty-suited, superlative most empty-suited)

comparative more empty-suited · superlative most empty-suited

  1. derogatoryslanggovernmentOf or characteristic of an empty suit.

    traits not high on her list when she'd limited herself to all those glamorous but empty-suited men.

    1991, Judy Kuriansky, How to Love a Nice Guy, page 69
    5 more examples

    Within this world, some of the characters are stock types, beginning with Bruce Davison's guileful opportunist and Kevin O'Rourke's empty-suited gladhander.

    1987, New York Times & Arno Press (publisher), The New York Times Theater Reviews, page 156

    neither the unclothed Bride nor the empty-suited "suitors" ever cross panes to connect or to evolve apart from their perpetual motion machines.

    2000, Elizabeth Haas, Performing Barbara Stanwyck, 1922-1964, page 102

    So the empty-suited politician who has done nothing but stand in the way of American success in Iraq, who, along with the rest of his sorry-ass Party, has advocated American retreat and defeat at every turn, is somehow "the beneficiary" of the hard-won military and political victory his opponents achieved in the face of withering criticism, calumny, and lies from every quarter, including Obama himself.

    2008, Rush H. Limbaugh (contributor), The Limbaugh Letter, volume 17, page 2

    This, dear readers, is the fundamental difference between an empty-suited celebrity and a nuts-and-bolts executive: flim-flam artistry vs. substance and real results.

    2009 August 12, jose el fontanero, alt.politics.bush (Usenet)

    Instead he came across as an empty-suited, bloodless chief executive with a more expensive haircut than John Edwards.

    2019, Charles Reilly, Man of Letters, The Very Best of Reilly’s Letters Published in the L.A. Times

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

empty-suited. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/empty-suited

MLA

“empty-suited.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/empty-suited. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “empty-suited,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/empty-suited.

Source: empty-suited on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.