put on airs

Japan’s colonization of Korea from 1910 to 1945 introduced loanwords including gao, Japanese for “face,” adapted into Korean as “put on gao,” which means to put on airs.

Zaluzhny was already known as an ambitious and modern commander, but also an unpretentious man who liked to joke with his subordinates and didn't put on airs.

Mr. Silvestri, who once waited on Ms. Turner, said she did not put on airs.

Adams, who identifies as two-spirit — the term used by Indigenous communities for those who are nonbinary — did not put on airs.

Sometimes you get intimidated by people because of their intellect, but she never put on airs.