mutual admiration society

plural mutual admiration societies

1. derogatoryidiomaticA group of two or more people, in a workplace or other social environment, who routinely express considerable esteem and support for one another, sometimes to the point of exaggeration or pretense.

   Those two are incessantly flattering one another. They've formed an utterly nauseating mutual admiration society!

   5 more examples

   And the said members did accordingly resolve themselves into a little "mutual admiration society" for the entertainment and benefit of their visitors.

   1824, The Westminster Review, London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, page 400

   The note is from a special friend of yours; indeed I think you form a little mutual-admiration society.

   1872, Edward Payson Roe, chapter 32, in Barriers Burned Away

   Vandeloup smiled at this, and came to the conclusion that the Wopples family was a mutual admiration society.

   1889, Fergus Hume, chapter 13, in Madame Midas

   If you don't want a mutual admiration society, which dies as soon as you've all discovered each other's faults, you must nobble the Press.

   1919, Virginia Woolf, chapter 26, in Night and Day

   Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays had a mutual admiration society and the Clipper was happy to put his respect into writing.

   2007 July 17, Bill Gallo, “Signs of DiMaggio's greatness”, in New York Daily News

   Synonyms: circle jerk, echo chamber, filter bubble, hugbox