imperious

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Perhaps that made me a little imperious, a little superior in manner.

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. adjective Arrogantly domineering or overbearing. See Synonyms at dictatorial.
  2. adjective Urgent; pressing.
  3. adjective Obsolete Regal; imperial.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

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

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Examples (50)

  • Just as the imperious, black-robed tyrants on the courts of Massachusetts, Connecticut and California did before them, the Iowa Supreme Court decided that they would arbitrarily redefine marriage for all Iowans. —  GOPUSA
  • As the play begins, his two queens -- imperious first wife Marguerite (Susan Sarandon) and emotionally flamboyant, much-younger second wife Marie (Lauren Ambrose) -- bicker furiously about how to inform Berenger of his imminent death, while also bemoaning the gaping crack that has appeared in the wall of the throne room, which scenic designer Dale Ferguson backs with loosely hung seraglio inspired painted canvases that give the production an appropriately circus-like atmosphere. —  TheaterMania.com
  • At the time of the Gore-Bush contest, I found Gore a very poor candidate, self indulgent, imperious, and very uninspiring. —  Three Bulls!
  • Whether inept or imperious, the Dean administration is showing a penchant for less-than-effective governance, even with a mandate earned by someone else. —  Nashville Is Talking
  • My disposition is least of all imperious, and through feeling pity in many cases have I injured myself. —  The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I.
 

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

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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 (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Latin imperiōsus, from imperium, imperium; see empire.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also em-perious; = French impérieux = Spanish Portuguese Italian imperio-so, from Latin imperiosus, inperiosus, full of command, powerful, domineering, imperious, from imperium, inperium, command: see imperate, empire.
 

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/ɪmˈpirɪəs/
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