donnish

Synonyms for donnish

adj bookish, precise

adjective. instructive

1835, from don (n.) in the university sense + -ish. Related: Donnishness.

Sheffield said he liked people to be natural, and hated that donnish manner.

He was stiff and donnish, and had scarcely condescended to speak to any one.

I thought that he was affecting the poet, and in me he found a donnish affectation of the British sportsman.

I do not know whether I am donnish with him, or if I bullied him too much when he was little; but he is always counter to me.

He had known dons at Oxford, and placed Lady Latimer in the donnish caste: that was all.

Never were dons of the donnish sort more brilliantly twitted than by young Belloc.

Some of Southeys donnish ways to the irrepressible lad were superlatively exasperating.

"Really, Miss Allison——" he began in his most dignified Oxford donnish manner.