puffed-up
Americanadjective
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feeling self-important; arrogant; pompous.
-
swollen; puffy.
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.
A test for Mr. Pelley will be whether he dines out for the rest of his life on the, um, puffed-up version of his firing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Griffith was a puffed-up man of no amiable disposition; his fellow L.A. millionaire Alphonzo Bell, the developer of Bel-Air, mocked him as “the Prince of Wales.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026
One woman sits grinning idiotically at a huge, puffed-up pillow on her lap.
From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2025
"In fact, we look like we're peacefully and freely performing a big, fat show to a puffed-up and hateful power. The message is clear: they have no power over us!"
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2025
All I could think of on that walk to Perilee’s were the puffed-up words of my latest installment to Mr. Miltenberger’s paper.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
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.
