put on airs
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
For all his crowing about his money and showing off, he really didn’t put on airs.
From Salon • Nov. 23, 2025
Japan’s colonization of Korea from 1910 to 1945 introduced loanwords including gao, Japanese for “face,” adapted into Korean as “put on gao,” which means to put on airs.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 3, 2025
Zaluzhny was already known as an ambitious and modern commander, but also an unpretentious man who liked to joke with his subordinates and didn't put on airs.
From BBC • Jun. 14, 2023
Sometimes you get intimidated by people because of their intellect, but she never put on airs.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 25, 2022
It let her feel like she was distancing herself from her mother, who Terryl always felt put on airs that everything was okay.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
