clique

Etymology

Borrowed from French clique, ultimately of imitative origin. Influenced by "claque", though this may have happened in French rather than in English.

noun

1. A small, exclusive group of individuals, usually according to lifestyle or social status; a cabal.
   This school used to be really friendly, but now everyone keeps to their own cliques.
   There had been talk of some disagreement about a picture, but in Sir Maxwell's experience, artists frequently disagreed about pictures, with no more consequences than a little cold-shouldering or the formation of a clique. 1931, Dorothy L. Sayers, The Five Red Herrings
2. (graph theory) A subgraph isomorphic to a complete graph.
   The problem of finding the largest clique in an arbitrary graph is NP-complete.
3. (Internet) A group of related web sites that link to each other, like a webring but with exclusive membership determined by the clique owner.
   Does anyone know what an internet clique is/does? I came across a few and am thoroughly confused. 1999, Jackie, “someone help me out?”, in alt.fan.leo-dicaprio (Usenet)
   even though we're not "regulars" anymore...*sniffle*...we still can't forget the NG...i always tell new fans about it...(people who join my clique, etc...)...and besides...i owe the NG a LOT...itz where i met my best friend... 2000, - deanna -, “ot: hiya”, in alt.fan.backstreet.boys (Usenet)
   you always have to click some big section and you get a whole new set of options in a different frame, thats usually on the other side of the screen. when you're there, you can choose from (in a section site stuff or something like that) link me, link you, links, top 10 links, free for all links, cliques, and webrings. 2001, spee2k, “future no doubt website....”, in alt.music.no-doubt (Usenet)

verb

1. (intransitive) To associate together in a clannish way; to act with others secretly to gain a desired end; to plot.