Cliquey describes a place, club, office, school, or organisation that is full of cliques — or run by them. New people find it hard to join in; a few inner groups already have the friends, the jokes, and the say. Like clique, it shows disapproval: you are saying the culture is closed and a bit unkind, not merely that people have friends. A cliquey workplace might always lunch in the same little sets. A cliquey hobby club might freeze out anyone who did not start with the founders. It is informal-to-neutral complaint language, more spoken than legal or academic. Though actually one tight team is not enough to make a whole place cliquey; the word fits when the pattern is everywhere, or when those little groups control who gets included. You may also see cliquy, same meaning, but cliquey is the usual spelling.

愛搞小圈圈的、排外的