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Definition
arrogant (acting as if better, more important, and superior in ideas than others)- I have come to hate her supercilious smile.
supercilious = arrogant
- Her mother eyed my clothes with a supercilious air.
- She liked me better from that time on, and she never took a supercilious air with me again.Willa Cather -- My Antonia
- Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner.F. Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby
- While I spoke in supercilious accents, and looked at the room as if I had an oil well in my own backyard, my...Maya Angelou -- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- He said it as naturally as Inspector Crome might have said it-but without the superciliousness.Agatha Christie -- The ABC Murders
- Gwendolen. [Superciliously.] No, thank you. Sugar is not fashionable any more.Oscar Wilde -- The Importance of Being Earnest
- Don't be supercilious with your mother!Tennessee Williams -- The Glass Menagerie
- ...there is a disturbing, vaguely supercilious smile set into long, narrow lips.Jhumpa Lahiri -- The Namesake
- She was not a supercilious or an over-dainty woman.Kate Chopin -- The Awakening
- 'Enough, enough!' said Fudge, with a very supercilious look on his face.J.K. Rowling -- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- There it was again, that mysterious smile, sad and supercilious at the same time.Cornelia Funke -- Inkheart
- At last at twenty-six she found herself penned into marriage with a supercilious and ruined nobleman and the Cathedral of Lima fairly buzzed with the sneers of her guests.Thornton Wilder -- The Bridge of San Luis Rey
- "You may be the only guy my age I've ever met who knows..."
"Yes, well," Jace said, with a supercilious look, "I'm not like other guys. Besides," he added, flipping a book off the shelf, "at the Institute we have to take classes in basic medicinal uses for plants. It's required."Cassandra Clare -- City of Bones - And even though we heard what they thought of the deacon at St. Peter's (a "supercilious moron"), what they thought of the neighbors ("He's courting a heart attack with all that fat"), what they thought of one sister when the other sister was up in her room—we were not meant to repeat it.Alice Sebold -- Lucky
- The supercilious assumption was that on Sunday afternoon I had nothing better to do.F. Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby
- There was no concealing the fact, Cecil had meant to be supercilious, and he had succeeded.Forster, E. M. -- A Room With A View
- "But how very good of you to have come", he replied superciliously; for had I not told him that I hated dancing ?Virginia Woolf -- A Sketch of the Past
- While I looked at Thomas Stone and sat next to the supercilious Constance, a slow fuse burned inside me and it was about to ignite.Abraham Verghese -- Cutting for Stone
- "To be sure, to be sure," Hans Castorp replied superciliously.Thomas Mann -- The Magic Mountain
supercilious = arrogant
supercilious = arrogant
supercilious = arrogant
supercilious = self-important
superciliousness = arrogant (acting as if better, more important, and superior in ideas than others)
(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)
superciliously = arrogant disdain of those one views as unworthy
supercilious = arrogant
supercilious = arrogant
supercilious = arrogant
supercilious = arrogant (as though other opinions didn't matter)
supercilious = showing disdain of those one views as unworthy
supercilious = arrogant
supercilious = acting as if superior to others
supercilious = arrogant
supercilious = arrogant
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