smarty-pants
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.
People always enjoy a critical savaging, and there’s satisfaction in seeing a smarty-pants taken down a peg.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 16, 2019
Cole, a world-class smarty-pants, and Pike, an implacable and scary ex-Marine, make a terrific pair.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 31, 2019
Green’s characters are sweet, hyperverbal smarty-pants; they memorize poetry and say things like “I just want to do something that matters. Or be something that matters. I just want to matter.”
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 30, 2018
This smarty-pants spirit was on display in April at the Not the White House Correspondents' Dinner, where the honored guests included a table of fact-checkers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2017
Phony rules, which proliferate like urban legends and are just as hard to eradicate, are responsible for vast amounts of ham-fisted copyediting and smarty-pants one-upmanship.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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