highfalutin

Gilgamesh’s lament is not the stylized keening of epic tradition—not Achilles’ highfalutin howls after Hector strikes down Patroclus—but something rawer, humbler, more recognizably human.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

And it could have a huge impact on the game because, at the risk of getting highfalutin, it would require a new way of thinking about time.

From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2025

A second inscription at the Missouri School of Journalism, my alma mater, is also on the mark, though it’s even more mockable and highfalutin: "The Schoolmaster to the People."

From Salon ● Jan. 5, 2025

Because God, I don’t want to get highfalutin in any way, but we’re in trouble right now in our culture.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2024

Academics in the softer fields dress up the trivial and obvious with the trappings of scientific sophistication, hoping to bamboozle their audiences with highfalutin gobbledygook.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

“But to me, this is clothing nakedly private interests in highfalutin’ constitutional arguments.”

From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 2024

“There wasn’t much personality, and I mean that as a compliment. Ray wasn’t chummy, and he wasn’t a good ol’ Brooklyn boy or highfalutin’ guy trying to impress you,” Cotter said.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 15, 2022

I don’t know why we’re taught to think of it in this highfalutin’ way.

From Slate ● Feb. 8, 2021

The 68-year-old expressed approval of the Fangshan facilities, but said he wasn’t sure if the highfalutin' amenities would stand the test of time.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2015

You see, we 'd all of us thought our new Governor was just a highfalutin' tenderfoot, and it would n't be any job at all to buffalo him.

From Emerson's Wife and Other Western Stories by Florence Finch Kelly