crony

Word family

cro·ny /ˈkrəʊni $ ˈkroʊni/ noun (plural cronies) [countableC usually plural]

GROUP OF PEOPLEone of a group of people who spend a lot of time with each other – used to show disapproval 密友，老朋友〔含贬义〕

somebody’s cronies

the senator’s political cronies

该参议员的政治朋党

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Examples from the Corpus

crony• Bella had stayed there a bit, though, along with her ghastly cronies.• Even so, he had learned a lot, keeping what he knew from Spatz and his cronies.• An engineer, usually Atkinson or one of his cronies, would propose an unusual innovatIon.• Big Joe would see to that, or one of his cronies.• The senator gave positions of power to many of his political cronies.• Her allies in the government included those presidential cronies the Alsops despised.• Despite my closeness over a long period to Harold Wilson, I was certainly not close to his publicised cronies.

Origin crony

(1600-1700) Probably from Greek chronios “long-lasting”, from chronos “time”

cro·ny noun

Chinese

Syllable

Corpus