plural smarty-pants
informal
: smart aleck, know-it-all
"If you give people the impression you're a smarty-pants, that's no good for sure."Al Gore
Choosing books for picky friends can be humbling. There's always one smarty-pants who has read not only the gift book but everything else in the author's oeuvre.Marilyn Stasio
Even the smartest of smarty-pants couldn't have answered all four of those "gotcha" foreign-policy questions.Jonathan Alter
smarty-pants adjective
… a veneer of smarty-pants condescension. Ron Powers
Every musical genre has its smarty-pants jokesters, and alternative rock is no exception. Entertainment Weekly

Examples of smarty-pants in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Facebook was founded in 2004 by some smarty-pants college students whose one goal was to get women. Amy Dickinson, Detroit Free Press, 8 Apr. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'smarty-pants.' 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

1932, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of smarty-pants was in 1932

Dictionary Entries Near smarty-pants

Cite this Entry

“Smarty-pants.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/smarty-pants. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on smarty-pants

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!