the corridors of power

T

the corridors of power

Meaning

• the office of a powerful leader.
• senior levels of administration or government.
• centers of power and government.
• governing and ruling administration.
• higher echelons of government.

Example Sentences

1. When Jim became a clerk to a Supreme Court justice, he thought he would get his foot inside the corridors of power.
2. She was a considerable influence in the corridors of power, especially regarding private legislation.
3. I would love to be in the corridors of power someday.
4. He perfectly balances his family life with a job that involves navigating the corridors of power.
5. The corridors of power should act in harmony, knowing that the people of the country hold the actual power must be served well without indulging in power politics.
6. My neighbour worked in the minister’s office. She was able to help me solve the problem for she was familiar with the corridors of power.
7. He expected to get his foot in the corridors of power as the president’s personal adviser.
8. I told my neighbor about the problem; she worked in the minister’s office and therefore knew her way around the corridors of power.

Origin

Charles Percy Snow is credited as the first person who used the idiom in his novel Homecomings (1956) describing the ministries of Britain’s Whitehall and their top-ranking civil servants. He also used it as the title of his ninth book, The Corridors of Power. Later, the phrase was broadened to include any high official. Even though, people usually use it to describe power, it is more specifically applied to the most prominent levels of hierarchy in a specific organization or place, particularly when they are considered to be operating covertly.

Goverment, Political