quiet American
noun
A person likened to Graham Greene's character Alden Pyle, the ‘quiet American’, especially in being involved in espionage, or in being naive or idealistic.
Origin
1960s; earliest use found in The Listener. With allusion to Graham Greene's novel The Quiet American.
- sesquicentenary
- sesquicentennial
- sesquioxide
- sesquipedalian
- sesquiterpene
- sess
- sessile
- sessile oak
- session
- sessional
- session beer
- session clerk
- session musician
- Sessions, Roger
- sesterce
- sestertius
- sestet
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- set
- seta
- set a beggar on horseback and he'll ride to the Devil
- set about
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- set-aside