Definition of POMPOUS

Examples of pompous in a Sentence

So as the pictures of flooded shanties flicker by on cable news, uptight neatnik Midwestern Lutherans and sensitive northeastern urban sophisticates and pompous media grandees on both coasts express shock at the unexpected squalor of the poverty and bafflement over the slovenly corruption of the civic institutions. — Rob Long, National Review, 26 Sept. 2005 President Warren Harding was an orator, but his bloviations were an army of pompous phrases moving across the landscape in search of an idea. — Harold Evans, New York Times Book Review, 11 Nov. 2001 She never allowed her spirit to become, as, say, Henry Adams did, curdled by long exposure to Washington's tawdry and pompous aspects. — George F. Will, Newsweek, 24 May 1999 She found it difficult to talk about her achievements without sounding pompous. the pompous waiter served us in the manner of a person doing some poor soul a great favor

Recent Examples on the Web This was it [censorship and intimidation] which had damped the glory of Italian wits; that nothing had been there written now these many years but flattery and fustian [pompous speech]. — Mario Livio, STAT, "Is Anthony Fauci today’s Galileo Galilei, the champion of science?," 14 May 2020 Vlad Ivanov, who played the pompous provincial police captain in that film, returns in this one playing the same guy, Cristi Anghelache. — New York Times, "‘The Whistlers’ Review: From Bucharest With Ambivalence," 26 Feb. 2020 Ayn Rand, who was not merely a woman, a Russian immigrant, and a toweringly pompous intellectual, but also an ardent atheist and modernist. — Chris Lehmann, The New Republic, "What Richard Hofstadter Got Wrong," 16 Apr. 2020 Jefferson Mays will play the pompous mayor of River City, Iowa, with Jayne Houdyshell as his overbearing wife Mrs. Shinn. — David Rooney, Billboard, "Four Tony Award Winners Join Broadway Cast of 'The Music Man'," 5 Sep. 2019 There’s a healthy argument currently unfolding over whether the film’s portrayal of Bruce Lee (Mike Moh) as a pompous grandstanding star is accurate, fair, fictional, or just a little bit racist. — Ty Burr, BostonGlobe.com, "‘The Great Hack’ looks at how history was changed, and Tarantino changes history," 1 Aug. 2019 Critics described him variously as pompous, sycophantic, unctuous, oleaginous and obsequious. — Jo Craven Mcginty, New York Times, "James Lipton, ‘Inside the Actors Studio’ Host, Dies at 93," 2 Mar. 2020 Edison’s least favorite people were union leaders and pompous academics — the sort who’d never solved a technical problem or built anything of value with their hands. — David Oshinsky, New York Times, "An Inventor’s Life That Was Incandescent Any Way You Look at It," 22 Oct. 2019 The bawdy comic story lines are well-performed, most prominently by Brian Ibsen as the pompous lecher, Lucio. — Philip Brandes, Los Angeles Times, "Review: Shakespeare’s ‘Measure for Measure,’ set in the #MeToo era," 11 Oct. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'pompous.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.