high-toned
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Adjective[edit]
high-toned (comparative more high-toned, superlative most high-toned)
- Having a pretentious, high-class attitude
- 1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXXV, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 272:
- A robber is more high-toned than what a pirate is—as a general thing. In most countries they’re awful high up in the nobility—dukes and such.
- 2001, Susan Stryker, Queer Pulp, page 14:
- New American Library took an atypically high-toned approach to illustrating the Signet edition of William's Streetcar Named Desire, using a painting by acclaimed social realist Thomas Hart Benton.