Meaning of rond-de-cuir | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A French bureaucrat or functionary; an office worker.
2. A pen-pusher.
   colloquial, derogatory

Equivalents

Examples

“In 1893, Georges Courteline immortalised France's petty bureaucrats in a satirical novel called Messieurs les Ronds-de-Cuir, after the leather cushions that civil servants sat on. The "ronds-de-cuir" are still ridiculed and detested. Like Courteline's bureaucrats, the tormentors of the préfecture derive sadistic pleasure from sending people away for ever more documents.”

CEFR level