The Firm

proper noun

The British royal family.

Meanings

proper noun

alternative the Firm · alternative the firm

  1. The British royal family.

    Now Andrew has been fired from the Firm, a nation wonders: who’ll be next? [title]

    2025 October 31, Marina Hyde, “Now Andrew has been fired from the Firm, a nation wonders: who’ll be next?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
    3 more examples

    Markle’s American friends spoke eagerly about how she will be “an agent of change” for the royals, perhaps because they were too young, or too far away, to recall how things worked out for the last woman who tried to change The Firm.

    2018 May 20, Hadley Freeman, “Is Meghan Markle the American the royals needed all along?”, in The Guardian

    Given the traditionalism that is baked into the royal family, or The Firm as she called it, the Queen eschewed online communications for official messages.

    2022 September 9, Iain Thomson, “RIP Queen Elizabeth II: Britain's first tech monarch dies”, in The Register

    It does all rather reinforce the idea that the Windsors’ cringe-makingly self-styled “the firm” really is some dreary mid-range company with a wan Meet Our Team page on its website[…].

    2026 September 11, Marina Hyde, “Memo to King Charles: you can’t stop the Sussexes’ reality show bandwagon. You only spice up the script”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

Origin

Prince Philip (1921–2021) is said to have popularised the expression.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

The Firm. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/The%20Firm

MLA

“The Firm.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/The%20Firm. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “The Firm,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/The%20Firm.

Source: The Firm on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.