> as lemmas

1948 Observer 17 Oct. 5/2 The ‘whistle stops’..break down the difference between ‘them’ and ‘us’.

1957 R. Hoggart Uses of Literacy iii. 62 To the very poor, especially, they compose a shadowy but numerous and powerful group affecting their lives at almost every point: the world is divided into ‘Them’ and ‘Us’.

1962 Listener 8 Mar. 439/1 It is this feeling of being in a world that belongs to ‘them’ and not to ‘us’ that puts a strain on working-class children.

1966 Guardian 11 Oct. 3/1 The ‘ordinary people’ who looked on, who made..the Them and Us division [between cripples and other people].

1973 Times 1 Oct. (Nigeria Suppl.) p. viii/7 These real or imagined anti-Ibo factors translate themselves inside the state into a kind of laager mentality, ‘them’ against ‘us’.

1980 A. Cornelisen Flight from Torregreca x. 230 The vicious estrangements of a two-class, a Them-and-us society.

1998 BBC Match of Day Mag. Apr. 5/1 The relationship between manager and player has always been a ‘them and us’ situation.

2011 M. Pannett Just Job, Lad vii It had all the makings of a classic them-against-us situation.