as in pretentious
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Recent Examples of fancy-pants
Our city is a connect-the-dots map of marvels from hole-in-the-wall joints serving next-level noodles in Queens to fancy-pants French brasseries pouring freezer martinis from gilded carts in SoHo.
—
Andrea Strong, Bon Appetit Magazine, 10 Feb. 2026
Hotel-wise, the best place to be is either Kinloch Lodge, for belt-loosening cuisine and sing-worthy service, or Flodigarry Hotel, an off-compass outpost with a fancy-pants design bar and suites that wouldn’t look out of place in the Maldives.
—Mike MacEacheran, Condé Nast Traveler, 8 Sep. 2025
Partridge was dressed in classic English fancy-pants style, while Rodrigo embraced the vintage preppiness inherent to gingham.
—Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 2 July 2025
The surprise of Clover Hill is not that this sort of food is on offer in an outer borough—with its concentration of zillion-dollar brownstones and fancy-pants residents, Brooklyn Heights isn’t exactly salt of the earth.
—Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 21 July 2024
With crust that's beautifully singed and wondrously puffed, the not-so-basic numbers are polished with fancy-pants ingredients—from Calabrian chile, fennel and sausage to a cacio e pepe riff made with velvety cream sauce, formaggi al pepe and pecorino.
—Brooke Viggiano, Chron, 12 Mar. 2023
Andrea Strong, Bon Appetit Magazine, 10 Feb. 2026
Hotel-wise, the best place to be is either Kinloch Lodge, for belt-loosening cuisine and sing-worthy service, or Flodigarry Hotel, an off-compass outpost with a fancy-pants design bar and suites that wouldn’t look out of place in the Maldives.
—Mike MacEacheran, Condé Nast Traveler, 8 Sep. 2025
Partridge was dressed in classic English fancy-pants style, while Rodrigo embraced the vintage preppiness inherent to gingham.
—Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 2 July 2025
The surprise of Clover Hill is not that this sort of food is on offer in an outer borough—with its concentration of zillion-dollar brownstones and fancy-pants residents, Brooklyn Heights isn’t exactly salt of the earth.
—Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 21 July 2024
With crust that's beautifully singed and wondrously puffed, the not-so-basic numbers are polished with fancy-pants ingredients—from Calabrian chile, fennel and sausage to a cacio e pepe riff made with velvety cream sauce, formaggi al pepe and pecorino.
—Brooke Viggiano, Chron, 12 Mar. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fancy-pants
Adjective
-
Not to sound pretentious, but Elwood Dowd is sort of like a Christlike figure.—
Scott Feinberg,
HollywoodReporter,
4 June 2026
-
Set the scene Sexy without being pretentious and bold without the brashness, Il Sereno is a lesson in artful restraint.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
2 June 2026
Adjective
-
For the 2026 edition, by far the biggest in the competition’s 96-year history, even that grandiose billing is nothing like bombastic enough.—
Oliver Kay,
New York Times,
11 June 2026
-
For all of Control Resonant's slick presentation, the boss fight, which was just a giant floating head, felt one-note, with simple attack patterns that didn't really seem as grandiose as the situation demanded.—
Zackery Cuevas,
PC Magazine,
8 June 2026
Adjective
-
Among them a City boy wearing three Fit-Bit-type devices, two beautiful Middle Eastern sisters, an outrageously pompous elderly American (sorry; eavesdropping), and several Imelda Marcos lookalikes, tottering out of the treatment rooms with, somehow, their elaborate hairstyles still intact.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
2 June 2026
-
The usually pompous Victory Day Parade in Moscow on May 9th had to be pared down for fear of Ukrainian drones.—
Natasha Lindstaedt,
Forbes.com,
24 May 2026
Adjective
-
And that includes working together as a team without an inflated sense of pride.—
Emma Burleigh,
Fortune,
10 June 2026
-
The absolute ideal scenario for FIFA in this plan—that all the tickets sell at the inflated price—is basically impossible.—
Eben Novy-Williams,
Sportico.com,
10 June 2026
Adjective
-
For gardeners, spires of tiny purple flowers growing on tall, lush green stems appear in late spring and last through fall.—
Alexandra Jones,
The Spruce,
10 June 2026
-
The plant’s tiny tubular flowers grow in clusters and come in red, pink, yellow, orange, purple, and white—sometimes in single, bi, or tricolor form.—
Kate Nateras,
Architectural Digest,
10 June 2026
Adjective
-
Camp Lucy was born when former antiques dealer and real estate developer Whit Hanks restored the ornate chapel on his family’s property in 2008.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
27 May 2026
-
Despite its ornate craftsmanship and intricacies, Osaka’s tennis kit is still functional, transitioning from an entrance look to a competition-ready uniform for the four-time Grand Slam champion.—
Julia Teti,
Footwear News,
26 May 2026
Adjective
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The talent on display will be breathtaking and the matches should be thrilling, though a bloated group stage featuring 72 matches could dilute some of the excitement early in the tournament.—
Kyle Feldscher,
CNN Money,
11 June 2026
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But as the tournament opens, all of it feels rote and bloated, like a list of big-event boxes to be checked off.—
Luke Cyphers,
Sportico.com,
11 June 2026
Adjective
-
Tensions between Rian and Patrick flare when Rian drunkenly mentions a brief fling with Shiv, though the film’s clunky edit, which gives little room for the performances to breathe and play out organically within their contexts, makes these frictions feel stilted and juvenile.—
Beatrice Loayza,
Variety,
22 May 2026
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Inspired by Arcachon’s traditional stilted fishing huts, this signature suite has been styled by a succession of couture designers, starting with Maison Martin Margiela.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
6 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Fancy-pants.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fancy-pants. Accessed 12 Jun. 2026.
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