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.

In his cap and gown, he looked whatever the opposite of donnish is.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 26, 2019

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

In fact, this biography reads like two books: one an intelligent, even donnish work of criticism that connects the poems to the life, the other a sensationalistic anthology of gossip and subdued malice.

From Washington Post • Oct. 6, 2015

If he was taken in, his answer was dictated simply by a donnish unwillingness to allow any one to be better informed on any subject than he was himself.

From Erewhon Revisited by Butler, Samuel