"airs and graces" meaning in English

See airs and graces in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˌɛəz‿n̩ ˈɡɹeɪsɪz/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˌɛɚz‿n̩ ˈɡɹeɪsɪz/ [General-American] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-airs and graces.wav
Rhymes: -eɪsɪz Head templates: {{en-noun|p}} airs and graces pl (plural only)
  1. (derogatory) Behaviour adopted to demonstrate (originally) one's good upbringing; or (now) one's superiority; pretentious or snobbish behaviour. Tags: derogatory, plural, plural-only Synonyms: affectations, hoity-toity [archaic], huffiness, pretensions Related terms: give oneself airs, put on airs, stand on ceremony Translations (behaviour adopted (originally) to demonstrate one’s good upbringing; or (now) one’s superiority): hienostelu (Finnish), pöyhkeily (Finnish), Starallüren (note: of a celebrity) [feminine, plural] (German), whakaparanga (Maori)
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          "text": "He made a thouſand uggly Faces, / VVhich (as ſometimes in Ladies caſes) / VVere all deſign'd for Airs and Graces.",
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          "ref": "1711 July 3 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “FRIDAY, June 22, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 98; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 43:",
          "text": "Nature has laid out all her airt in beautifying the face; […] giving it airs and graces that cannot be described, and surrounded it with such a flowing shade of hair as sets all its beauties in the most agreeable light.",
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          "text": "Indeed, she rehearsed that exalted part in life with great satisfaction to herself, and to the amusement of old Sir Pitt, who chuckled at her airs and graces, and would laugh by the hour together at her assumptions of dignity and imitations of genteel life.",
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          "text": "The station (1840) was originally Cheltenham but the more grandiose Cheltenham Spa since 1925, which feels a bit pretentious as the town has never allowed itself to assume such airs and graces.",
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        "(derogatory) Behaviour adopted to demonstrate (originally) one's good upbringing; or (now) one's superiority; pretentious or snobbish behaviour."
      ],
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        {
          "word": "give oneself airs"
        },
        {
          "word": "put on airs"
        },
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          "word": "stand on ceremony"
        }
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          "word": "affectations"
        },
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          "tags": [
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          "word": "hoity-toity"
        },
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          "word": "huffiness"
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          "word": "pretensions"
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        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "behaviour adopted (originally) to demonstrate one’s good upbringing; or (now) one’s superiority",
          "word": "hienostelu"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "behaviour adopted (originally) to demonstrate one’s good upbringing; or (now) one’s superiority",
          "word": "pöyhkeily"
        },
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          "lang": "German",
          "note": "of a celebrity",
          "sense": "behaviour adopted (originally) to demonstrate one’s good upbringing; or (now) one’s superiority",
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            "feminine",
            "plural"
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          "word": "Starallüren"
        },
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          "sense": "behaviour adopted (originally) to demonstrate one’s good upbringing; or (now) one’s superiority",
          "word": "whakaparanga"
        }
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      "word": "give oneself airs"
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      "word": "put on airs"
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      "word": "stand on ceremony"
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        "Behaviour adopted to demonstrate (originally) one's good upbringing; or (now) one's superiority; pretentious or snobbish behaviour."
      ],
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        "(derogatory) Behaviour adopted to demonstrate (originally) one's good upbringing; or (now) one's superiority; pretentious or snobbish behaviour."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "affectations"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "archaic"
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          "word": "hoity-toity"
        },
        {
          "word": "huffiness"
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          "word": "pretensions"
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      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "behaviour adopted (originally) to demonstrate one’s good upbringing; or (now) one’s superiority",
      "word": "hienostelu"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "behaviour adopted (originally) to demonstrate one’s good upbringing; or (now) one’s superiority",
      "word": "pöyhkeily"
    },
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      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "note": "of a celebrity",
      "sense": "behaviour adopted (originally) to demonstrate one’s good upbringing; or (now) one’s superiority",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "Starallüren"
    },
    {
      "code": "mi",
      "lang": "Maori",
      "sense": "behaviour adopted (originally) to demonstrate one’s good upbringing; or (now) one’s superiority",
      "word": "whakaparanga"
    }
  ],
  "word": "airs and graces"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.