Ivy League

noun

a group of colleges and universities in the northeastern U.S., consisting of Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, and Brown, having a reputation for high scholastic achievement and social prestige.

adjective

of, relating to, or characteristic of Ivy League colleges or their students and graduates.

Origin of Ivy League

First recorded in 1935–40

OTHER WORDS FROM Ivy League

Ivy Leaguer, noun

Example sentences from the Web for ivy league

  • Sarah Palin wanted to make it a contest between high falutin', Ivy-League cosmopolitans and red-blooded, bear-hunting Americans.

    Behind the Democratic Wipeout |Peter Beinart |November 4, 2009 |DAILY BEAST

British Dictionary definitions for ivy league

Ivy League

noun

US
  1. the Ivy League a group of eight universities (Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth College, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale) that have similar academic and social prestige in the US to Oxford and Cambridge in Britain
  2. (as modifier)an Ivy-League education

Cultural definitions for ivy league

Ivy League

A group of eight old, distinguished colleges and universities in the East, known for their ivy-covered brick buildings. The members of the Ivy League are Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale Universities; Dartmouth College; and the University of Pennsylvania.