air quotes

American  

plural noun

1. a gesture in which two fingers of each hand draw quotation marks in the air, used when uttering a word or phrase one does not think is appropriate or accurate.

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Etymology

Origin of air quotes

First recorded in 1985–90

Example Sentences

Or should audiences be reading into the suspicious air quotes around the title?

From Los Angeles Times

Gaffigan is serious enough about his pursuit to say “my whiskey journey” several times in conversation with a straight face and no air quotes.

From The Wall Street Journal

Her fingers make air quotes to emphasize the irony of the perpetrator being favored over his victims, an injustice she’d rectify decades later in her fiction.

From Los Angeles Times

Dahlia and I always put this “doctrine” in air quotes.

From Slate

“Like, how can I be an ‘expert’ — and I say that with heavy, heavy air quotes — and still be struggling in this way?”

From New York Times