supercilious

adjective su·per·cil·ious \ ˌsü-pər-ˈsi-lē-əs , -ˈsil-yəs \

Definition of supercilious

:coolly and patronizingly haughty

reacted to their breach of etiquette with a supercilious smile

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superciliously

adverb

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superciliousness

noun

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Examples of supercilious in a Sentence

While Americans did congregate together at baseball games, … amusement parks, dance halls and arcades, tensions still roiled. The middle class may not have been as supercilious as the elites it replaced, but middle-class reformers were every bit as strident as those elites in condemning … working-class entertainments, and for the same reason: These entertainments constituted a challenge to the class's social control. —Neal Gabler, Life: The Movie, 1998
Cross' popular academic sleuth Kate Fansler returns, this time as a guest professor at the down-at-the-heels Schuyler Law School, where she has been asked to teach a course on literature and the law. Ardent feminist Kate soon finds that not only is Schuyler a bastion of intolerant, supercilious white males, but worse, any attempt by women or minorities to be heard is quickly quashed by the old-boy network. —Emily Melton, Booklist, 15 Dec. 1994
Jorgeson had a sharp tongue and was so supercilious in his remarks that I didn't know quite how seriously I should take this talk, but I enjoyed his humor and I did believe he had the sensibilities of an artist. —Thom Jones, New Yorker, 2 Dec. 1991
the supercilious art dealer rolled her eyes when we asked if she had anything for under $1,000

Recent Examples of supercilious from the Web

But the emotional gimmickry here gets too close to the supercilious Beasts of the Southern Wild, which was also produced by the Gottwald-Janvey team in a fit of class condescension about the impoverished blacks of Hurricane Katrina.

— armond white, National Review, "Class Consciousness, French- and American-Style," 18 Aug. 2017
In fact the artist, Reginald Bunthorne (comically supercilious and preening F. Lawrence Ewing, alternating in the role with Chris Uzelac) is a fraud, his poetic persona a sham to attract women.

— sam hurwitt, The Mercury News, "Review: ‘Patience’ not Gilbert and Sullivan’s best, but still worthy," 10 Feb. 2017
Sanders, Hollywood’s suavest cad of the 1940s, typically delivered his lines with a silken, self-satisfied purr and was much appreciated by Sirk for his sense of supercilious irony.

— j. hoberman, New York Times, "In “A Scandal in Paris,” Sanders," 13 Oct. 2016

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

What is the Origin of supercilious?

Arrogant and disdainful types tend to raise an eyebrow at anything they consider beneath them. The original supercilious crowd must have shown that raised-eyebrow look often, because the adjective supercilious derives from "supercilium," Latin for eyebrow. (We plucked our adjective and its meaning from the Latin adjective superciliosus.) "Supercilious" has been used to describe the censoriously overbearing since the late 1600s, but there was a time in the 1700s when it was also used as a synonym of another "supercilium" descendent, "superciliary" ("of, relating to, or adjoining the eyebrow"). Although the eyebrow sense of "supercilious" is now obsolete, it does help explain what ornithologist John Latham meant in 1782 when he described a "Supercilious K[ingfisher]" with a narrow orange stripe over its eyes.

Origin and Etymology of supercilious

Latin superciliosus, from supercilium eyebrow, haughtiness, from super- + -cilium eyelid (akin to celare to hide) — more at hell

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First Known Use: 1543

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supercilious Synonyms

Synonyms

assumptive, bumptious, cavalier, chesty, haughty, highfalutin (also hifalutin), high-and-mighty, high-handed, high-hat, huffish, huffy, imperious, important, lofty, lordly, masterful, overweening, peremptory, pompous, presuming, presumptuous, pretentious, self-asserting, self-assertive, sniffy, stiff-necked, arrogant, superior, toplofty (also toploftical), uppish, uppity

Antonyms

humble, lowly, modest, unarrogant, unpretentious

Near Antonyms

bashful, cowering, cringing, demure, diffident, introverted, mousy (or mousey), overmodest, self-critical, self-doubting, sheepish, shrinking, shy, subdued, timid; acquiescent, compliant, deferential, meek, passive, submissive, unaggressive, unassertive, unassuming, unobtrusive, yielding; quiet, reserved, retiring

Synonym Discussion of supercilious

proud, arrogant, haughty, lordly, insolent, overbearing, supercilious, disdainful mean showing scorn for inferiors. proud may suggest an assumed superiority or loftiness.