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.
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
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
Although some readers found these asides a little donnish, the dispensation of particulars achieved a sensuous flow: you could go swimming in Porter’s omniscience.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 4, 2015
Bullying - The Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge Julian Huppert, a man with donnish levels of detail, complained of being "bullied" in the Commons chamber.
From BBC ● Dec. 24, 2013
But all three are obscure and deeply moving topics, topics for which the donnish mind has a kind of special ineptitude, and which it evades with the utmost skill and delicacy.
From Marriage by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
