Highfalutin Definition

hīfəlo͝ot'n
high-falutin
adjective
Ridiculously pretentious or pompous.
Webster's New World

(US, informal) Self-important, pompous; arrogant or egotistical; tending to show off or hold oneself in unduly high regard.

It's only a matter of time before some highfalutin developer builds a huge hotel and ruins the scenery.
Wiktionary

Origin of Highfalutin

  • Alteration of high-fluting. In his book, The Adventure of English, Melvyn Bragg records that in a nascent America, when the well-to-do travelled by steamboat, said passengers were referred to as highfalutin due to the high fluted funnels on the boats. Compare riffraff.

    From Wiktionary

  • Origin unknown

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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