live in an/(one's) ivory tower



Like this video? Subscribe to our free daily email and get a new idiom video every day!

live in an/(one's) ivory tower

To reside or exist in a place or among a social circle that is characterized by effete academic intelligence and thus is out of touch with or aloof from the realities of life. I don't put much weight in the advice of a bunch of economists living in their ivory towers who've never worked a real job in their lives. It seemed easy to solve all the world's problems when I was living in an ivory tower. Now that I'm out of college, I realize things are so much more complex than I'd imagined.
See also: ivory, live, tower

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Momchil-Bulgarian
Fareeha-Arabic, Urdu
TirzahTIR-zə (English)Biblical
Mitchel['mitʃəl]
GenesisJEN-ə-sisEnglish (Modern)
WalterWAWL-tər (English), VAHL-ter (German, Polish, Italian)English, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Polish, Italian, Ancient Germanic