useful idiot
A Communist sympathizer in Western countries, from the perspective of the political rightA Communist sympathizer in Western countries, from the perspective of the political right.
» Tom is a useful idiot.
Tom ist ein nützlicher Idiot. — Adelpa
Том - полезный идиот. — marafon
Том — корисний ідіот. — deniko
Adelpa · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 senses(derogatory, historical)A Communist sympathizer in Western countries, from the perspective of the political right.
nützlicher Idiot, nützliche Idiotin
поле́зный идио́тpoléznyj idiót, поле́зная идио́ткаpoléznaja idiótka
кори́сний ідіо́тkorýsnyj idiót, кори́сна ідіо́ткаkorýsna idiótka
(derogatory)One who unwittingly supports a malignant cause through naive attempts to be a force for good.
Examples
4 sentencesTranslations
8 languagesOrigin
The earliest known usage in Western media is in a 1948 article in the social-democratic ItThe earliest known usage in Western media is in a 1948 article in the social-democratic Italian paper L'Umanità – as cited in the New York Times article on Italian politics (see quotations). Often misattributed to Vladimir Lenin.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: useful idiots| Singular | useful idiot |
|---|---|
| Plural | useful idiots |
regular