hoity-toity

American  

[hoi-tee-toi-tee] / ˈhɔɪ tiˈtɔɪ ti /

adjective

1. assuming airs; pretentious; highfalutin; haughty.

   He thinks he's better than we are because he went to one of those hoity-toity private schools.

2. giddy; flighty.

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noun

1. giddy behavior.

hoity-toity British  

/ ˌhɔɪtɪˈtɔɪtɪ /

adjective

1. informal arrogant or haughty

   we have had enough of her hoity-toity manner

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Etymology

Origin of hoity-toity

First recorded in 1660–70; reduplicated and altered rhyming compound based on hoit “to romp, riot, play the fool” (now obsolete)

Explanation

Someone who's hoity-toity is pretentious and snooty. If you speak to someone in a hoity-toity accent, they are going to assume that you're a snob. Your hoity-toity aunt might refuse to eat lunch in your favorite diner, insisting on someplace fancier, and a hoity-toity salesman might make you feel like you don't belong in an expensive department store with your old jeans and worn sneakers. The adjective hoity-toity started out meaning "riotous behavior" in the 1660s. By the late 1800s it had gained its modern meaning, probably out of similarity to the word "haughty."

Example Sentences

"I thought it important that we didn't issue a kind of hoity-toity response to Chalamet," Beard said.

From BBC • Apr. 14, 2026

It’s particularly amusing to see Manville square up with Huppert as the hoity-toity hard-nosed manager of a fashion house, when Manville so deliciously ate up a similar role in her Oscar-nominated performance in “Phantom Thread.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 14, 2022

“That’s how I went up to my hoity-toity apartment before closing.”

From New York Times • Feb. 3, 2021

Trendy South Lake Union versions be damned: Das Wagon’s very, very spicy version of the Seattle Dog isn’t any kind of hoity-toity “elevation” of the stadium-food favorite.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 24, 2019

And, “Always crowing about their kid with the straight A’s at that hoity-toity school. Well, they’re not crowing now.”

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides