Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- In a pretentious manner.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb In a manner with
unwarranted claim toimportance ordistinction . - adverb
Ostentatiously ; in a manner intended to impress others. - adverb In a manner demanding of skill or
daring .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb in a pretentious manner
Etymologies
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Examples
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They stray too far from their area of expertise and engage in pretentiously written, self-important speculation.
New & Noteworthy 2004
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They stray too far from their area of expertise and engage in pretentiously written, self-important speculation.
New & Noteworthy 2004
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Add to that the fact that Paolo Giordano is the right side of 30 and that writing is, for him, but a hobby (he's actually a particle physicist) and you'll understand why I was tightening up my laces to give his pretentiously titled tome a good kicking.
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“Oh, really?” said the administrator pretentiously.
Carolina Grüber: II Ivan R. 2011
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Outside of the pretentiously fashion conscious who feel they need to spend more on certain items, no one purposefully spends more on a product than they have to.
Over-worked or Over-taxed?, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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Being pretentiously condescending to people doesn't make you suddenly right.
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In your usage, 'review' means to read something over, furrow one's brows dramatically, and then announce pretentiously, "Looks OK to ME ..."
Today's Video: We got a wicked shimmy up here - NASA Watch 2009
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He preferred to be understood more simply: "They were called movies," he more than once said to me, "and I made them move"—perhaps better and less pretentiously than any of his peers, especially after he signed on at Warner Bros. and entered his glory years with "The Roaring Twenties" 1939, a James Cagney gangster film.
We Shall Not See His Like Again Richard Schickel 2011
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For horror fans who can't bear to watch as defanged vampires and cuddly werewolves make goo-goo eyes over some girl with shiny hair, there's still one monster who resists taming: You will never catch a zombie mooning pretentiously over his true love.
5 books on zombies Yvonne Zipp 2010
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Being pretentiously condescending to people doesn't make you suddenly right.
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