empty-suited

From empty suit +‎ -ed.

empty-suited (comparative more empty-suited, superlative most empty-suited)

1. (slang, derogatory, politics) Of or characteristic of an empty suit.
   • 1987, New York Times & Arno Press (publisher), The New York Times Theater Reviews‎^[1], page 156:

     Within this world, some of the characters are stock types, beginning with Bruce Davison's guileful opportunist and Kevin O'Rourke's empty-suited gladhander.

   • 1991, Judy Kuriansky, How to Love a Nice Guy, page 69:

     traits not high on her list when she'd limited herself to all those glamorous but empty-suited men.

   • 2000, Elizabeth Haas, Performing Barbara Stanwyck, 1922-1964, page 102:

     neither the unclothed Bride nor the empty-suited "suitors" ever cross panes to connect or to evolve apart from their perpetual motion machines.

   • 2008, Rush H. Limbaugh (contributor), The Limbaugh Letter‎^[2], volume 17, page 2:

     So the empty-suited politician who has done nothing but stand in the way of American success in Iraq, who, along with the rest of his sorry-ass Party, has advocated American retreat and defeat at every turn, is somehow "the beneficiary" of the hard-won military and political victory his opponents achieved in the face of withering criticism, calumny, and lies from every quarter, including Obama himself.

   • 2009 August 12, jose el fontanero, alt.politics.bush‎^[3] (Usenet):

     This, dear readers, is the fundamental difference between an empty-suited celebrity and a nuts-and-bolts executive: flim-flam artistry vs. substance and real results.

   • 2019, Charles Reilly, Man of Letters, The Very Best of Reilly’s Letters Published in the L.A. Times:

     Instead he came across as an empty-suited, bloodless chief executive with a more expensive haircut than John Edwards.

   • 2020 April 4, Fred Oinka, “Emperor Trump*”, in alt.slack‎^[4] (Usenet):

     He’s a “fucking moron”, a useless dummy, not a leader or an executive. Just a reality teevee refugee. An actor and a grifter with no administrative skills whatsoever, so he turns it over to his defective, evil, incompetent freak of a son-in-law and his empty suited, mannequin of a Vice President.