IMPERIOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does imperious mean? 

• IMPERIOUS (adjective)
  The adjective IMPERIOUS has 1 sense:

1. having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy

  Familiarity information: IMPERIOUS used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IMPERIOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy

Synonyms:

disdainful; haughty; imperious; lordly; overbearing; prideful; sniffy; supercilious; swaggering

Context example:

a more swaggering mood than usual

Similar:

proud (feeling self-respect or pleasure in something by which you measure your self-worth; or being a reason for pride)

Derivation:

imperiousness (the trait of being imperious and overbearing)

 Context examples 

She dropped on her face, before the imperious figure in the chair, with an imploring effort to clasp the skirt of her dress.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I felt at times as if he were my relation rather than my master: yet he was imperious sometimes still; but I did not mind that; I saw it was his way.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Sir Lothian’s fierce little grey eyes had to lower themselves before the imperious anger which shone in my uncle’s.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He has the reputation of being hot-headed and imperious, but a straight, honest man.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was Laurie's father, who had run away in his youth, and married against the imperious old man's will.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She silenced him with an imperious gesture as he strove to speak.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

There was so much that was more important than Latin, so many studies that clamored with imperious voices.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

How he came there, I know not, but I heard his voice raised in a tone of imperious command, and looking towards the sound, saw him stand in the roadway.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And indeed the worst of my faults was a certain impatient gaiety of disposition, such as has made the happiness of many, but such as I found it hard to reconcile with my imperious desire to carry my head high, and wear a more than commonly grave countenance before the public.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

By the utmost self-violence I curbed the imperious voice of wretchedness, which sometimes desired to declare itself to the whole world, and my manners were calmer and more composed than they had ever been since my journey to the sea of ice.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)