Showing results for "posturing"

• present participle of posture.

posturing

American  

[pos-cher-ing] / ˈpɒs tʃər ɪŋ /

noun

1. speech or action that is artificial, hypocritical, or calculated to mislead.

   I'm fed up with the reaching-across-the-aisle posturing intended to make politicians seem like they’re working hard for bipartisan reform.

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adjective

1. engaging in or characterized by such speech or behavior.

   He cynically believes that anybody trying to live up to an ideal is either a posturing liar or a simple-minded fool.

Etymology

Origin of posturing

First recorded in 1620–30; postur(e) ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. ) for the noun; postur(e) ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. ) for the adjective

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

posturing

Police union officials rebuked Mamdani over the comments, accusing him of activist posturing that puts officers in a bad position.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

There comes a time when one extols cinema’s virtues so fiercely that it feels like posturing.

From Salon ● Sep. 17, 2026

By throwing a naive character into this environment, what were you aiming to expose about the difference between posturing around these subcultures and the lived reality of them?

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

Adam Posen, the president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said Bessent’s posturing was ill-advised.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026

Northern posturing on this matter was insufferable, as Jackson saw it, since their oozing arguments transformed a geographic accident and a product of historical circumstance into a willful sin.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Related Words

• charade
• cloak
• pretext
• semblance
• veneer