donnish
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- donnishly adverb
- donnishness noun
- donnism noun
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.
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
I think when I meet those arguments I tend to become a bit donnish, perhaps slightly finger-wagging.
From BBC • May 31, 2017
He still fires up the forge now and then, either to do donnish demonstrations for new hires or to make things: door hinges, fireplace sets, a shovel for his son’s pizza oven.
From The New Yorker • Sep. 12, 2016
In fact, this biography reads like two books: one an intelligent, even donnish work of criticism that connects the poems to the life, the other a sensationalistic anthology of gossip and subdued malice.
From Washington Post • Oct. 6, 2015
But all three are obscure and deeply moving topics, topics for which the donnish mind has a kind of special ineptitude, and which it evades with the utmost skill and delicacy.
From Marriage by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
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.
