PEDANT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does pedant mean? 

• PEDANT (noun)
  The noun PEDANT has 1 sense:

1. a person who pays more attention to formal rules and book learning than they merit

  Familiarity information: PEDANT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PEDANT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who pays more attention to formal rules and book learning than they merit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

bookworm; pedant; scholastic

Hypernyms ("pedant" is a kind of...):

bookman; scholar; scholarly person; student (a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pedant"):

purist (someone who insists on great precision and correctness (especially in the use of words))

Derivation:

pedantic (marked by a narrow focus on or display of learning especially its trivial aspects)

 Context examples 

I never saw a man so distressed as you were by my will; unless it were that hide-bound pedant, Lanyon, at what he called my scientific heresies.

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

I had no occasion of bribing, flattering, or pimping, to procure the favour of any great man, or of his minion; I wanted no fence against fraud or oppression: here was neither physician to destroy my body, nor lawyer to ruin my fortune; no informer to watch my words and actions, or forge accusations against me for hire: here were no gibers, censurers, backbiters, pickpockets, highwaymen, housebreakers, attorneys, bawds, buffoons, gamesters, politicians, wits, splenetics, tedious talkers, controvertists, ravishers, murderers, robbers, virtuosos; no leaders, or followers, of party and faction; no encouragers to vice, by seducement or examples; no dungeon, axes, gibbets, whipping-posts, or pillories; no cheating shopkeepers or mechanics; no pride, vanity, or affectation; no fops, bullies, drunkards, strolling whores, or poxes; no ranting, lewd, expensive wives; no stupid, proud pedants; no importunate, overbearing, quarrelsome, noisy, roaring, empty, conceited, swearing companions; no scoundrels raised from the dust upon the merit of their vices, or nobility thrown into it on account of their virtues; no lords, fiddlers, judges, or dancing-masters.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

O, I know he’s a good fellow—you needn’t frown—an excellent fellow, and I always mean to see more of him; but a hide-bound pedant for all that; an ignorant, blatant pedant.

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