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.
Tobin was Tiffany’s manager, and an almost hilariously cliched one: a dominant, abrasive, controlling know-all.
From The Guardian • Apr. 12, 2020
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 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
In short, we are unattractive know-all obsessives who get things out of proportion and are in continual peril of being disowned by our exasperated families.
From "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Author
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.
