[
UK
/sˌuːpəsˈɪlɪəs/
]
[ US /ˌsupɝˈsɪɫiəs/ ]
[ US /ˌsupɝˈsɪɫiəs/ ]
ADJECTIVE
-
expressive of contempt
spoke in a sneering jeering manner
curled his lip in a supercilious smile
makes many a sharp comparison but never a mean or snide one -
having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy
haughty aristocrats
walked with a prideful swagger
some economists are disdainful of their colleagues in other social disciplines
his lordly manners were offensive
a more swaggering mood than usual
very sniffy about breaches of etiquette
his mother eyed my clothes with a supercilious air
How To Use supercilious In A Sentence
- 'I know no life that must be so delicious as that of a writer for newspapers, or a leading member of the opposition -- to thunder forth accusations against men in power; show up the worst side of every thing that is produced; to pick holes in every coat; to be indignant, sarcastic, jocose, moral, or supercilious; to damn with faint praise, or crush with open calumny! Lance Mannion:
- The former live their lives within a rigid moralism and behavioral codes and have a supercilious social pretense.
- I'm sorry, Nick, anyone but that insufferable, lying, supercilious, talentless, mediocre, tiny-minded creep Charlie Boy.
- OK I've been known to drop ambivalent, but I have never said fulgent or supercilious! Amen to intellectualism!
- It was a different man this time, but he had the same supercilious expression,
- In contrast, a pedant is a supercilious show-off who drops references to Sophocles and masks his shallowness by using words like “fulgent” and “supercilious.” Archive 2008-11-01
- His manner was often offensively supercilious, and then again modest and self - effacing, almost tremulous.
- Her father always claimed he was a charlatan and quietly mocked Cotterell's supercilious air and ostentatious dress. A SHRINE OF MURDERS
- She's also married to a supercilious English barrister.
- The voice of the narrator is a somewhat supercilious one, observing and comparing the rites from the train window.