us-and-them

English

Adjective

us-and-them (not comparable)

1. Being or pertaining to a divisive belief whereby those outside one's immediate circle are regarded as enemies.
   • 1987, New York Magazine:

     Good football teams always have an us-and-them mentality; there are the 45 players and their coaches, and then there is everybody else.

   • 1992, Jack Dunham, Stress in Teaching:

     […] one of the major concerns by staff is the lack of social contact with an SMT and an 'us and them' syndrome developing.

   • 2006, Keith Oatley, Dacher Keltner, Jennifer M Jenkins, Understanding Emotions:

     We described above how a solution to the problem of interpersonal feuding has been to devolve such feuds to an authority such as the police. But what if the police behave in an us-and-them way?

Related terms

• us versus them
• us-and-them-ism

See also

• campism

Anagrams

• them-and-us