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)

Example Sentences

L.A.’s tamale men of yore largely disappeared when restaurants — once almost exclusively a hoity-toity affair — became affordable, and Angelenos moved on to other Cal-Mex dishes like tacos and chile verde.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 29, 2023

Best of all, they’ve generated comical, bloggable, hoity-toity Georgetown neighbor drama.

From Slate • Mar. 4, 2021

I don't have a lot of patience for a lot of the hoity-toity fine dining stuff.

From Salon • Jul. 18, 2020

Shiny, expensive, hoity-toity: these are three of many synonyms I heard from Angelenos describing Santa Barbara, the beach town that has long had a reputation as a weekend escape for Los Angeles’s elite.

From New York Times • Dec. 24, 2019

Members of the hoity-toity Mount Zion Baptist Church mingled with the intellectual members of the African Methodist Episcopal and African Methodist Episcopal Zion, and the plain working people of the Christian Methodist Episcopal.

From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou