[Sp., dim. of camara room, CHAMBER.]
1. A small chamber.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, Wks. II. 312. Now and then, one has a new cell or camarilla opened in his brain.
2. A private cabinet of counsellors; a cabal, clique, junto; a body of secret intriguers.
1839. R. M. Beverley, Heresy Hum. Priesth., 111. Conference is a camarilla of priests, who, with closed doors, make all the laws by which the society is regulated.
1858. Sat. Rev., V. 445/1. It is only a camarilla which demands Lord Palmerston’s return to office.
1867. Ward, in Ess. Reunion, 117. No camarilla of worldly-minded politicians lay or sacerdotal.
