POMPOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does pompous mean? 

• POMPOUS (adjective)
  The adjective POMPOUS has 2 senses:

1. puffed up with vanity

2. characterized by pomp and ceremony and stately display

  Familiarity information: POMPOUS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POMPOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Puffed up with vanity

Synonyms:

grandiloquent; overblown; pompous; pontifical; portentous

Context example:

pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and pontifical hooey

Similar:

pretentious (making claim to or creating an appearance of (often undeserved) importance or distinction)

Derivation:

pomp (cheap or pretentious or vain display)

pomposity; pompousness (lack of elegance as a consequence of being pompous and puffed up with vanity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Characterized by pomp and ceremony and stately display

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

ceremonious; pompous

Pertainym:

pomp (ceremonial elegance and splendor)

Derivation:

pomp (ceremonial elegance and splendor)

 Context examples 

There is something very pompous in his style.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

A pompous butler ushered us severely to the door, and we found ourselves in the street.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Challenger said nothing, but looked pompous and puffy, as if he could if he would, so that finally Lord John asked his opinion direct.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Our visitor bore every mark of being an average commonplace British tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His life history was written in his heavy features and pompous manner.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She scarcely noted the rhythm otherwise, except when it became too pompous, at which moments she was disagreeably impressed with its amateurishness.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He is a harsh man; at once pompous and meddling; he cut off our hair; and for economy's sake bought us bad needles and thread, with which we could hardly sew.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was hardly possible, indeed, that anything else should be talked of, for Mrs. Norris was in high spirits about it; and Mrs. Rushworth, a well-meaning, civil, prosing, pompous woman, who thought nothing of consequence, but as it related to her own and her son's concerns, had not yet given over pressing Lady Bertram to be of the party.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The chancellor rose, and having slowly unrolled the parchment-scroll, proceeded to read it out in a thick and pompous voice, while a subdued rustle and movement among the brothers bespoke the interest with which they followed the proceedings.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

With the Judge’s sons, hunting and tramping, it had been a working partnership; with the Judge’s grandsons, a sort of pompous guardianship; and with the Judge himself, a stately and dignified friendship.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)