hoity-toity

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“
It's no good your being hoity-toity, and telling me to mind my business.

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Pretentiously self-important; pompous.
  2. adjective Given to frivolity or silliness.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • • Girl moves in with hoity-toity richies to tend to spoiled brat children —  Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch
  • I am not a fan of her My Brightest Diamond work; it's too hoity-toity for my tastes. —  Pitchfork: Latest News
  • I notice that every time I walk past the magazine display in the hoity-toity grocery store in my area. —  feminist blogs
  • No, I have not been given a full scholarship to some hoity-toity hi tech university. —  Kottu
  • But these hoity-toity bourgeoisie … Well, they're not the bourgeoisie, but … Well, they are in a sense. —  race42008.com
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This word has been looked up 121 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From reduplication of dialectal hoit, to romp; perhaps akin to hoyden.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Also written hoighty-toighty, hity-tity, highty-tighty; apparently a varied redupl. of hoit, without def. meaning.
  2. Also highty-tighty, etc.; from hoity-toity, interj.
 

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/ˈhɔɪtɪˈtɔɪti/
by American Heritage

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