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Definition
rude and disrespectful behavior — often made by someone who does not realize they are being rude — as when someone is presumptuous or impolitely bold- She had the effrontery to laugh at the mayor's request.
effrontery = impolite boldness
- Armed with too much confidence and effrontery, she made a lot of enemies.
- I wonder—yes I wonder how he has the effrontery to look me in the face, to dare to claim acquaintance with me.Forster, E. M. -- A Room With A View
- Oh, woman, throw off your disguising cloaks of selfishness, effrontery, and affectationJerome, Jerome K. -- Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
- you ... have the effrontery to imagine...C.S. Lewis -- Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia
- I'll have no effrontery here!Arthur Miller -- The Crucible
- He stood close to her, and the effrontery in his eyes repelled the old, vanishing self in her, yet drew all her awakening sensuousness.Kate Chopin -- The Awakening
- To many, there is an effrontery in DRUMMOND'S very voice—folksy and relaxed.Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee -- Inherit the Wind
- Can't you see how he has the effrontery to compare his own shabby surveillance of us with God's providence?Jostein Gaarder -- Sophie's World
- ...the mild effrontery of this unaccountable scrivener.Herman Melville -- Bartleby, the Scrivener: a Story of Wall Street
- I find thou hast the most consummate effrontery to dare to mention so presumptuous a design!Voltaire -- Candide
- Edgar was incensed by her effrontery, practically amounting to insubordination.Pat Frank -- Alas, Babylon
- You have the effrontery to bring your monster into my house, and tell me it's nothing much!John Wyndham -- The Chrysalids
- What effrontery!Oscar Wilde -- The Importance of Being Earnest
- McMurphy would be embarrassed to absolute tears if he were aware of some of the simon-pure motives people had been claiming were behind some of his dealings. He would take it as a direct effrontery to his craft.Ken Kesey -- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- Denis Eady was the son of Michael Eady, the ambitious Irish grocer, whose suppleness and effrontery had given Starkfield its first notion of "smart" business methods, and whose new brick store testified to the success of the attempt.Edith Wharton -- Ethan Frome
- That monistic claim was the most naked piece of effrontery the Spirit had ever had to endure.Thomas Mann -- The Magic Mountain
- His claw-like hand moved almost imperceptibly upward while his pale eyes strove to pierce the strength behind Holderness's effrontery.Zane Grey -- The Heritage of the Desert
- A car horn has a nightmarish kind of effrontery, or a birdsong.John Gardner -- The Sunlight Dialogues
- Many representatives privately voiced outrage over the effrontery of Talleyrand and his agents.David McCullough -- John Adams
effrontery = disrespectful behavior
effrontery = impolite boldness
effrontery = impolite boldness
effrontery = impolite boldness
effrontery = impolite boldness
effrontery = impolite boldness
effrontery = impolite boldness
effrontery = impolite boldness
effrontery = rude and disrespectful behavior
effrontery = impolite boldness
effrontery = impolite boldness
effrontery = rude and disrespectful behavior — often made by someone who does not realize they are being rude
effrontery = impolite boldness