know-all
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of know-all
First recorded in 1880–85
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.
Steering away from the competitive tendencies of know-all musos, like those memorably sent up in Nick Hornby's 1995 novel High Fidelity, Fitzgerald wanted the club to concentrate on getting personal reactions to much-loved LPs.
From BBC • Oct. 20, 2017
IT know-all puts Gareth in his place: "Oi, no professionals."
From The Guardian • Jul. 8, 2011
It is left to Geraldine Fitzgerald as a pipe-smoking Scottish school teacher and Christopher Godwin as a widely travelled know-all to persuade us that the English countryside is not populated entirely by half-wits.
From The Guardian • Nov. 24, 2010
Suddenly he is among us again, the schoolmaster's tone unmistakable, the detachable collar and know-all smile the same he wore when he disappeared several decades ago.
From Time Magazine Archive
Briony had heard a know-all porter saying, with what sounded like satisfaction, that nothing now could stop the German army.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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.
