Pecksniffian

American  

[pek-snif-ee-uhn] / pɛkˈsnɪf i ən /

Sometimes Pecksniffish

adjective

(often lowercase)

1. hypocritically and unctuously affecting benevolence or high moral principles.

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Pecksniffian British  

/ pɛkˈsnɪfɪən /

adjective

1. affecting benevolence or high moral principles

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Other Word Forms

• Pecksniffery noun
• Pecksniffianism noun
• Pecksniffism noun

Etymology

Origin of Pecksniffian

1850–55; named after Seth Pecksniff, character in Martin Chuzzlewit, a novel (1843) by Dickens; -ian

Example Sentences

With another season underway, suspend your Pecksniffian disapproval of the college football industry’s recent upheavals.

From Washington Post • Sep. 28, 2022

Insults that are banned include "hypocrite", "blackguard" and "Pecksniffian cant", although only Jacob Rees-Mogg would use that last one these days.

From The Guardian • May 26, 2012

But Baedeker was dreadfully Pecksniffian about these poor innocent etudiantes, many of whom love their lovers much more truly than many a British wife loves her husband, and are much better loved in return.

From Quest of the Golden Girl, a Romance by Le Gallienne, Richard

The London Times will, we presume, impugn the motives of the charity—call it Pecksniffian and Heep-ish—or possibly try to prove that the Federals had no hand in the good deed.

From The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 January 1863 Devoted To Literature And National Policy by Various

For a minute or two, in fact, he was hot, and pale, and mean, and shy, and slinking, and consequently not at all Pecksniffian.

From Martin Chuzzlewit by Dickens, Charles