as in bumptious
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Recent Examples of self-dramatizing
Like Frey, Lowell was a self-dramatizing fraudster, taking elements of her real life and grandly embellishing them.
—
Michael Waters, New Yorker, 3 Jan. 2026
The Hemingway in the piece is a comic figure—self-dramatizing, repetitive, marooned within his own monologues, and sometimes ridiculously affected.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025
In a head-turning breakout performance, Tonatiuh (seen recently in Carry-On) can flip from proud to humiliated, self-dramatizing to selfless, often within a single line reading.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Michael Waters, New Yorker, 3 Jan. 2026
The Hemingway in the piece is a comic figure—self-dramatizing, repetitive, marooned within his own monologues, and sometimes ridiculously affected.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025
In a head-turning breakout performance, Tonatiuh (seen recently in Carry-On) can flip from proud to humiliated, self-dramatizing to selfless, often within a single line reading.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for self-dramatizing
Adjective
-
The day after Politico reported that Scott Bessent had threatened to punch a bumptious housing official in the face, the secretary of the Treasury addressed Republican luminaries gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Laffer curve under the big chandelier in his department’s Cash Room.—
Ben Smith,
semafor.com,
8 Dec. 2025
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Like the opera, the film blends these disparate moods and tones at a whirlwind tempo: slapstick comedy and poignant melodrama, graceful lyricism and bumptious braggadocio, witty satire and bitter tragedy.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
30 July 2025
Adjective
-
The attention to amusing detail is evident throughout, from the vainglorious mayor’s ample display of chest fur to the very long wintry outfit Gary De’Snake wears in snowy conditions.—
Frank Scheck,
HollywoodReporter,
25 Nov. 2025
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All but the most vainglorious architects imagine that their buildings will change in some small way after completion.—
Anthony Paletta,
Curbed,
2 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
A lot of people who are that level of arrogant, there’s also an immense insecurity, right?—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
12 Jan. 2026
-
The boy is arrogant, Helen thinks.—
Sadia Shepard,
New Yorker,
11 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
The company director, representing a self-aggrandizing political blowhard, is humiliatingly sidelined, and the workers have a grand time.—
Andrew Fedorov,
The Atlantic,
31 Dec. 2025
-
Of course, Epstein was a self-aggrandizing criminal.—
Michelle Goldberg,
Mercury News,
15 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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The Pitt definitely feels like the type of workplace where conceited doctors-in-training are pretty much guaranteed to quickly get knocked down a peg.—
Megan McCluskey,
Time,
8 Jan. 2026
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But Grande’s conceited blonde bubblehead gains in stature here as Glinda assumes statesmanlike responsibility to spread goodness in Oz, while experiencing crushing romantic disappointment that humbles her and deflates her vanity.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
18 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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Other performances, like Lowden’s egotistical failson and Fearn’s twitchy brother, come off too broadly even for Brooks’s stylized tone.—
David Sims,
The Atlantic,
12 Dec. 2025
-
The man started saying that Sliwa was being egotistical.—
Naaman Zhou,
New Yorker,
3 Nov. 2025
Adjective
-
That sweet spot between professionalism, entertainment and high-and-mighty disapproval?—
Phil Hay,
New York Times,
19 June 2025
-
Lots of high-and-mighty people populate Tyrrell’s recollections.—
John Fund,
National Review,
26 Nov. 2023
Adjective
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And now the supercilious Ivy League twits try to dodge the consequences of their woke follies.—
Howie Carr,
Boston Herald,
24 Dec. 2025
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Klára works at a grocery store formerly owned by the family of her colleague Elza (Hermina Fátyol) but now taken over by a supercilious Stalinist (Konrád Quintus) who doesn’t bother hiding his disdain for the two Jewish women.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
28 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Self-dramatizing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-dramatizing. Accessed 16 Jan. 2026.
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