smarty-pants
Americannoun
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He's just a smarty-pants, showing off for some girls.
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a smart person.
My kid is a super smarty-pants who continues to get 4s on her state exams.
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(used as a mildly abusive term of address or to refer to someone with contempt).
Who invited that smarty-pants--everyone hates her!
noun
Etymology
Origin of smarty-pants
First recorded in 1915–20
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.
Cole, a world-class smarty-pants, and Pike, an implacable and scary ex-Marine, make a terrific pair.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 31, 2019
Green’s characters are sweet, hyperverbal smarty-pants; they memorize poetry and say things like “I just want to do something that matters. Or be something that matters. I just want to matter.”
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 30, 2018
This smarty-pants spirit was on display in April at the Not the White House Correspondents' Dinner, where the honored guests included a table of fact-checkers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2017
Einstein, always the smarty-pants, outdid them both: “No worthy problem is ever solved in the plane of its original conception.”
From The Guardian ● Mar. 4, 2017
When he saw me laughing at him, he was like, “Okay, smarty-pants, if you can do it better then show me.”
From "Courage to Soar" by Simone Biles
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.
