Supercilious \Su`per*cil"i*ous\, a. [L. superciliosus, fr.
supercilium an eyebrow, pride; super over, + cilium an
eyelid; probably akin to celare to conceal. Cf. Conceal.]
Lofty with pride; haughty; dictatorial; overbearing;
arrogant; as, a supercilious officer; asupercilious air;
supercilious behavior. --
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
supercilious
adj 1: having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of
those one views as unworthy; "some economists are
disdainful of their colleagues in other social
disciplines"; "haughty aristocrats"; "his lordly
manners were offensive"; "walked with a prideful
swagger"; "very sniffy about breaches of etiquette";
"his mother eyed my clothes with a supercilious air";
"shaggy supercilious camels"; "a more swaggering mood
than usual"- W.L.Shirer [syn: disdainful, haughty,
lordly, prideful, sniffy, swaggering]
2: expressive of contempt; "curled his lip in a supercilious
smile"; "spoke in a sneering jeering manner"; "makes many
a sharp comparison but never a mean or snide one" [syn: sneering,
snide]
WordNet (r) 2.0
40 Moby Thesaurus words for "supercilious":
arrogant, cavalier, clannish, cliquish, condescending,
contemptuous, contumelious, disdainful, dismissive, exclusive,
haughty, high and mighty, high-and-mighty, highfalutin,
hoity-toity, insolent, la-di-da, lofty, lordly, overbearing,
patronizing, pompous, pretentious, scornful, sneering, sniffy,
snippy, snobbish, snobby, snooty, snotty, snuffy, stuck-up, stuffy,
superior, toploftical, toplofty, uppish, uppity, withering
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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