put on airs

Idioms  

1. Assume a haughty manner, pretend to be better than one is, as in I'm sick of Claire and the way she puts on airs. Airs here means “a manner of superiority.” [c. 1700]

---

Example Sentences

For all his crowing about his money and showing off, he really didn’t put on airs.

From Salon

Japan’s colonization of Korea from 1910 to 1945 introduced loanwords including gao, Japanese for “face,” adapted into Korean as “put on gao,” which means to put on airs.

From Los Angeles Times

Zaluzhny was already known as an ambitious and modern commander, but also an unpretentious man who liked to joke with his subordinates and didn't put on airs.

From BBC

Mr. Silvestri, who once waited on Ms. Turner, said she did not put on airs.

From New York Times

Adams, who identifies as two-spirit — the term used by Indigenous communities for those who are nonbinary — did not put on airs.

From New York Times

Related Words

• bluster
• gloat
• prance
• sashay
• saunter
• strut