smarty-pants

American  

[smahr-tee-pants] / ˈsmɑr tiˌpænts /

noun

(used with a singular verb)

1. smart aleck.

   He's just a smarty-pants, showing off for some girls.

2. a smart person.

   My kid is a super smarty-pants who continues to get 4s on her state exams.

3. (used as a mildly abusive term of address or to refer to someone with contempt).

   Who invited that smarty-pants--everyone hates her!

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smarty-pants British  

/ ˈsmɑːtɪˌbuːts, ˈsmɑːtɪˌpænts /

noun

1. informal (functioning as singular) a would-be clever person

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Etymology

Origin of smarty-pants

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

I folded my hands together on top of my desk and nodded toward my bedroom door, hoping Miss Smarty-Pants could take a hint.

From Literature

Those smarty-pants Yippies understood that.

From Salon

Anger — fueled by the cruelty of politics, by the indignities of capitalism, by Costello’s somewhat creepy ideas about women — was no impediment to productivity as punk’s smarty-pants polemicist banged out the nearly five dozen songs found on his first four studio albums.

From Los Angeles Times

“Jez is a smarty-pants,” Jay said.

From Literature

But try as it might — and oh how it tries, mightily — to be a “meta-slasher whodunit,” as one of the high school crews puts it, this “Scream” feels less like a movie than a podcast about a movie, one hosted by a claque of irritating, smarty-pants commentators who don’t know when to shut up.

From Washington Post