Liliputin -5715

Emperors with no clothes like Trump dress down anyone who won't agree with them ... "
Hugo Boss


Liliputins. What, the heck, is this?
http://stihi.ru/2025/03/08/5867

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The Emperor Has No Clothes
Quick links: Meaning | Origin | Spread & Usage

Meaning
What does The Emperor Has No Clothes mean?

The Emperor Has No Clothes is an idiomatic phrase, that comes from a tale by Hans Christian Andersen where a vain emperor is tricked by two swindlers who promise to make him a set of clothes that are invisible to anyone who is unfit to hold their office or is stupid.

In reality, the swindlers are just pretending to weave the clothes, and the emperor ends up walking naked in a parade, unwilling to admit that he cannot see his own clothes.

The phrase has since become an idiom used to describe a situation where someone is pretending to be something they are not, or when something is revealed to be a fraud. It’s a way of pointing out that someone is not as powerful or impressive as they claim to be, or of exposing a lie or deception.

So next time you hear someone say “The Emperor Has No Clothes,” you’ll know that it’s a clever way of calling out someone’s bluff.



Origin
What's the origin of The Emperor Has No Clothes?

The origin of this phrase dates back to the tale of Hans Christian Andersen, titled “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” which was published in 1837, along with The Little Mermaid.

The story tells of an exhibitionistic emperor who is obsessed with clothing and fashion. Two swindlers pull a fraud on him by telling him and his court that they will tailor an outfit that can only be seen by the wise. This results in nobody admitting that the emperor is, in fact, naked, up to the very end of the story, when a boy exclaims that “The Emperor Has No Clothes.”

Due to the large influence of Andersen’s tales, the story became a widely known fable, and this impact has embedded it into of European culture.

Spread & Usage
How did The Emperor Has No Clothes spread?

Since the publication of the original tale, the phrase has since been used as a symbol of speaking truth to power and has been adapted into various forms of media, including books, films, and even political cartoons. It serves as a powerful reminder that sometimes, it takes a child’s innocent honesty to reveal the truth and bring about change.

It started seeing widespread use in English at the turn of the 20th century, and would appear in more and more media content by the 1950s.

An influential book, published by Jack Herer in 1985, is titled The Emperor Wears No Clothes, debunking several claims about the Cannabis plant, cited in several studies, aiming at legalizing or decriminalizing the plant.

Today, the metaphor is used flexibly, in a wide variety of contexts, however “The Emperor Has No Clothes” is usually aimed at debunking widely accepted myths and deceptions, revealing an uncomfortable truth.


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dress down
phrasal verb with dress verb
uk  /dres/ us  /dres/
Add to word list
to wear informal clothes in a situation where people often wear more formal clothes:
She always tried to dress down on her first date with a man.
On casual Friday, office workers were allowed to dress down at the end of the working week.
 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Putting clothes on
arrayedbundlebundle (someone) up phrasal verbdolldoll yourself up phrasal verbdolled upflingget up phrasal verbglamglam up phrasal verblayeringmake yourself respectable idiommuffleput something on phrasal verbredonrespectablerigrig someone out phrasal verbslipthrow
See more results »
 
dress someone down
phrasal verb with dress verb
uk  /dres/ us  /dres/
old-fashioned
 
to speak angrily to someone because they have done something wrong:
His boss dressed him down for showing up late.
She dresses down anyone who won't join in.
Related word
dressing-down
 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
 
dress something down
phrasal verb with dress verb
uk  /dres/ us  /dres/
 
to make an item of clothing less formal, or to wear an item of clothing in a way that makes it less formal:
An open-neck shirt can dress down a suit.
This dress is easy to wear and very feminine. You can dress it down with a cardigan for the day and dress it up with jewelry for the evening.
 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
 
dress-down
adjective (also dressdown, dress down)
uk  /;dres;da;n/ us  /;dres;da;n/
 
A dress-down policy or day is one in which employees are allowed to wear informal clothes at work:
dress-down day Because of the heat we've declared a dress-down day.
dress-down Friday On a recent dress-down Friday at his office, he decided to wear his new trainers.
dress-down policy The new headquarters has a permanent dress-down policy.
We're not exactly dress-down, but we are more relaxed than many financial institutions.
Related word
dress down
 More examples
 
dress-down
noun [ U ] (also dressdown, dress down)
uk  /;dres;da;n/ us  /;dres;da;n/
 
a policy of allowing employees to wear informal clothes at work:
People feel more comfortable with dress-down, but we still wear suits for meetings with clients.
The bank declared an end to "dressdown" and instructed traders to smarten up.
 More examples
(Definition of dress down from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)
dress down | Business English
dress down
phrasal verb with dress verb
uk  /dres/ us
Add to word list
WORKPLACE
to wear more informal clothes to work than you usually do:
Staff have been told that they can dress down on Fridays.

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Hugo Boss AG (stylized as HUGO BOSS) is a designer fashion company headquartered in Metzingen, Baden-W;rttemberg, Germany. The company sells clothing, accessories, footwear, and leather goods. Hugo Boss is one of the largest German clothing brands,[4] with global sales of about €4.3 billion in 2024.[2] Its stock is a component of the MDAX.[5] The company's fashion brands are Boss and Hugo. Hugo Boss also sells licensed brand products for children's fashion, eyewear, watches, home textiles, riding apparel, writing utensils and fragrances.[6]

The company was founded in 1924 in Germany by Hugo Ferdinand Boss and originally produced general-purpose clothing. In the early 1930s, Hugo Boss began to produce and supply military uniforms for the Nazi Germany government, resulting in a large boost in sales.[7] After World War II and the founder's death in 1948, Hugo Boss started to turn its focus to men's suits. The company went public in 1988 and introduced a fragrance line that same year, adding men's and women's wear diffusion lines in 1997, a full women's collection in 2000, and children's clothing in 2006–2007. The company has since evolved into a major global fashion house. As of December 2024, it operated 1,532 own retail points of sale worldwide.[2]