Pretentious vs Overweening - What's the difference?
pretentious | overweening |
As adjectives the difference between pretentious and overweening is that pretentious is marked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction while overweening is unduly confident; arrogant; presumptuous; conceited. As a noun overweening is an excessively high opinion of oneself or one's abilities; presumption, arrogance. As a verb overweening is .
pretentious English
Alternative forms
*
Adjective
( en adjective)
Marked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction.
- Their song titles are pretentious in the context of their basic lyrics.
Ostentatious; intended to impress others.
- Her dress was obviously more pretentious than comfortable.
Synonyms
* poseur
* See also
Antonyms
* unpretentious
Derived terms
* pretentiously
* pretentiousness
Related terms
* pretend
* pretender
* pretense
* pretension
References
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overweening English
Adjective
( en adjective)
Unduly confident; arrogant; presumptuous; conceited.
* Shakespeare
- Here's an overweening rogue.
- She wins one modeling contest in Montana and suddenly she's overweening .
*1870 ,
*:No success rendered him overweening and no disaster was ever known to stagger his firmness.
*1908 , Frederic Bancroft and William A. Dunning,
*:The Senate was displaying an overweening hauteur as if it were the government.
Exaggerated, excessive
* {{quote-web
, date=20150104
, year=
, first=
, last=
, author=Jonathan Rauch
, authorlink=
, title=How to Make Men Free
, site=NY Times
citation
, archiveorg=
, accessdate=21050215
, passage=The idea that an overweening federal government is a threat to both freedom and equality (not to mention prosperity) goes back to Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry and some other fairly respectable personages.
}}
Derived terms
* overweeningly
* overweeningness
Noun
(-)
An excessively high opinion of oneself or one's abilities; presumption, arrogance.
*, II.12:
*:Let us suppresse this over-weening .
Verb
(head)
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