highborn

adjective

high·​born ˈhī-ˈbȯrn How to pronounce highborn (audio)
: of noble birth

Examples of highborn in a Sentence

skeptics have argued that these dramatic masterpieces must have been written by someone more highborn than one William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon
Recent Examples on the Web Along a road lined with thousands of pagan graves and the multilayered catacombs of the Christians, the Gothic army traveled after the three-day sack, leading wagons bulging with loot and a contingent of highborn Roman hostages, of whom by far the most valuable was the 20-year-old Placidia. Tony Perrottet, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Jan. 2023 But unlike the sinisterly driven and chaste Eve—played by the highborn Anne Baxter, granddaughter of Frank Lloyd Wright—Miss Caswell uses her body to get ahead, providing a foil for the successful antihero. Sophie Lewis, Harper’s Magazine , 26 Oct. 2022 The banking dynasty’s founder, Mayer Amschel Rothschild of Frankfurt, a Jewish dealer in rare coins, began making loans and cultivating a highborn clientele in the 18th century. James R. Hagerty, WSJ, 11 Nov. 2022 Nannette, with her plain, angular face and hawklike eyes, wasn’t beautiful or highborn. Patricia Morrisroe, New York Times, 6 Nov. 2020 Live, Love, Laugh, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex AVAILABLE ITEMS PRINCELY AF sweatshirt (£80): Sharpie on a Champion-brand hooded sweatshirt—the perfect blend of highborn-lowbrow! Emily Flake, The New Yorker, 15 Jan. 2020 Modern Jerusalem was spared Disneyfication, first by the highborn culture of British colonialism, with its awe for the city’s antique past, and next by Jordanian paralysis, which froze the Old City as if in amber. Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, 13 Sep. 2019 One is a seedy refuge in Pigalle, with rat droppings on the floor and a lone bullet, left in a drawer; another is a château in the countryside, with snow on the ground and a highborn family in residence. Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 30 Aug. 2019 His highborn friends—including the funny Menenius Agrippa, played by Teagle F. Bougere, who makes Elizabethan English sound easy-peasy, the smoothest conversation—try to coax him out of war mode and into the hearts of the people. Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2019

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'highborn.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of highborn was in the 13th century

Dictionary Entries Near highborn

Cite this Entry

“Highborn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/highborn. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

highborn

adjective
high·​born ˈhī-ˈbȯ(ə)rn How to pronounce highborn (audio)
: of noble birth

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