Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Conduct becoming a puppy; silly, conceited foppishness; empty-headed affectation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Extreme meanness, affectation, conceit, or impudence.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Extreme
meanness ,affectation ,conceit , orimpudence . - noun Youthful folly.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Our cat knows who the queen of the domain is and is quite sure that anti-puppyism is the one true faith.
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Our cat knows who the queen of the domain is and is quite sure that anti-puppyism is the one true faith.
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Lounging near the doors, and in remote corners, were various knots of silly young men, displaying various varieties of puppyism and stupidity; amusing all sensible people near them with their folly and conceit; and happily thinking themselves the objects of general admiration — a wise and merciful dispensation which no good man will quarrel with.
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I think him a very handsome young man, and his manners are precisely what I like and approve — so truly the gentleman, without the least conceit or puppyism.
Emma 2004
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I think him a very handsome young man, and his manners are precisely what I like and approve -- so truly the gentleman, without the least conceit or puppyism.
Emma Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 2001
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He was never guilty of any posing for effect, any attitudinizing in public, any mawkish sentimentality, any of that puppyism so often bred by power, that dogmatism which Johnson said was only puppyism grown to maturity.
Public Speaking Irvah Lester Winter
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He was never guilty of any posing for effect, any attitudinizing in public, any mawkish sentimentality, any of that puppyism so often bred by power, that dogmatism which Johnson said was only puppyism grown to maturity.
Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z Various
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You may think it puppyism, if you please; but I am really sorry when I make an impression, and resolve never to attempt it again: but the next fine voice, or fine eyes ---- '
The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 2, January, 1851 Various
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We read much of the luxurious effeminacy of the old Romans, their fantastically curled hair, their favourite robes, &c.; but what will posterity think of some of the modes of puppyism in our times, when they read in a chronicle of fashion, dated 1829, that gentlemen wore elegant drab cloth opera manteaux lined with scarlet velvet, and confined at the collar with a gold chain!
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 13, No. 360, March 14, 1829 Various
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And even scrupulous neatness need bring with it no suspicion of puppyism.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 48, October, 1861 Various
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