friends in high places

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

friends in high places pl (plural only)

1. (idiomatic) Friends who have authority or influence and who can ensure that one's interests will be protected or furthered.
   • 1913, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 10, in The Mischief Maker:

     "Herr Freudenberg himself has great friends here, friends in high places. He will see that nothing happens."

   • 1987 November 30, “War Crimes: Long Road To Justice”, in Time‎^[1], retrieved 18 May 2015:

     In recent years he was protected by friends in high places.

   • 2006 April 1, Phillip Alder, “On a Day Made for Tricks, Lots of Ways to Get Them All”, in New York Times‎^[2], retrieved 18 May 2015:

     In Petrograd they were in great danger but had many friends in high places, and with money for bribes they avoided arrest.

   • 2008, “More News From Nowhere”, in Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds:

     I walk into the corner of my room / See my friends in high places / I don't know which is which or who is whom / They've stolen each other's faces

Antonyms

• friends in low places

Translations

friends who have authority or influence

• Finnish: vaikutusvaltaiset ystävät (usually in partitive)
• Hungarian: befolyásos barátok
• Polish: mocne plecy m pl
• Spanish: tener buenas aldabas (es), enchufismo (es) m

See also

• it's not what you know but who you know
• ride the coattails

Further reading

• “friends in high places”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.