hoity-toity

hoity-toity
 
adjective | hoy-tee-TOY-tee
 
What It Means
 
Someone or something described as hoity-toity may also be called snooty or pretentious; hoity-toity people appear to think that they are better, smarter, or more important than other people, and hoity-toity places and things seem to be made for those same people. An informal word, hoity-toity is a synonym of pompous, fancy, and hifalutin.
 
// The guidance counselor emphasized that students do not need to go to a hoity-toity college to achieve success.

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hoity-toity
1 of 2
noun
hoi·;ty-toi·;ty ;h;i-t;-;t;i-t;  ;h;-t;-;t;-t;
Synonyms of hoity-toity
: thoughtless giddy behavior
hoity-toity

2 of 2
adjective
1
: thoughtlessly silly or frivolous : flighty
2
: marked by an air of assumed importance : highfalutin
a hoity-toity college professor
The restaurant was too hoity-toity for my tastes.


Did you know?
When Should You Use hoity-toity?

Hoity-toity is believed to have been created as a rhyme based on the dialectal English word hoit, meaning "to play the fool." Hoity-toity can mean "foolish" (e.g., "… as though it were very hoity-toity of me not to know that royal personage." — W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge), but it is most often used to mean "pretentious."

Examples of hoity-toity in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
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Noun
Zazu, Scar’s winged associate, is played with hoity-toity dry wit by Nick LaMedica.
—Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 21 Nov. 2024

Word History
Etymology
Noun

rhyming compound from English dialect hoit to play the fool

First Known Use
Noun

1668, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

1812, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of hoity-toity was in 1668