high-flown

American  

[hahy-flohn] / ˈhaɪˈfloʊn /

adjective

1. extravagant in aims, pretensions, etc.

2. pretentiously lofty; bombastic.

   We couldn't endure his high-flown oratory.

   Synonyms:

   grandiloquent, magniloquent, flowery, florid

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high-flown British  

adjective

1. extravagant or pretentious in conception or intention

   high-flown ideas

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Etymology

Origin of high-flown

First recorded in 1640–50

Example Sentences

Cinema purists have a tendency to speak of the theatrical experience in such high-flown spiritual terms.

From Los Angeles Times

The jovial candid photos of the leaders and their high-flown speeches amply testified to the event’s momentousness.

From New York Times

But a sense of futility is equally inadequate, and Alameddine has no taste for the magical-realist variants or high-flown lyricism attempted by other novelists when writing about refugees.

From Los Angeles Times

Like Bennett, Davies isn’t afraid of obvious debts to cinema; some of the high-flown motifs in the first movement of her “What Did We See?” might bring to mind John Williams’s “Star Wars” scores.

From New York Times

This opinion is relentlessly contextual and resistant to high-flown abstraction.

From Washington Post