donnish
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Instead, long stretches of the book read like disparate essays on donnish life, fads and internecine disagreements, strung together in a sequence that never coheres.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
During a long, donnish life he also found time to co-write the only dictionary for Krio, the lingua franca of Sierra Leone.
From Economist ● Feb. 1, 2018
I think when I meet those arguments I tend to become a bit donnish, perhaps slightly finger-wagging.
From BBC ● May 31, 2017
He still fires up the forge now and then, either to do donnish demonstrations for new hires or to make things: door hinges, fireplace sets, a shovel for his son’s pizza oven.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 12, 2016
He was stiff and donnish, and had scarcely condescended to speak to any one.
From The Three Lieutenants by Archibald Webb
