donnish
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of donnish
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mr. Boorman comes across as donnish, astute and likable, but also arrogant and dismissive of legitimate concerns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
During a long, donnish life he also found time to co-write the only dictionary for Krio, the lingua franca of Sierra Leone.
From Economist ● Feb. 1, 2018
Although some readers found these asides a little donnish, the dispensation of particulars achieved a sensuous flow: you could go swimming in Porter’s omniscience.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 4, 2015
Bullying - The Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge Julian Huppert, a man with donnish levels of detail, complained of being "bullied" in the Commons chamber.
From BBC ● Dec. 24, 2013
He felt that Jack was not pleased with his puppets; his father had needed no apologies or explanations, Maud had been forward, he himself had been donnish.
From Watersprings by Arthur Christopher Benson
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.
