snob
Americannoun
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a person who imitates, cultivates, or slavishly admires social superiors and is condescending or overbearing to others.
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a person who claims to be an expert or connoisseur in a given field and is condescending toward or disdainful of those who hold other opinions or have different tastes regarding this field.
a musical snob.
noun
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a person who strives to associate with those of higher social status and who behaves condescendingly to others Compare inverted snob
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( as modifier )
snob appeal
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a person having similar pretensions with regard to his tastes, etc
an intellectual snob
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of snob
First recorded in 1775–85; origin uncertain; first used as a nickname for “a cobbler or cobbler's apprentice,” hence “a townsman, someone of low class or lacking good breeding, commoner,” hence ”someone who imitates persons of higher rank”
Explanation
If your best friend tells you that you've become a snob, he means that you've become condescending and you like to think you're better than everyone else. Of course maybe he's a snob for looking down on your behavior — how annoying! Snob has a funny history. It used be slang for "shoemaker," then "common person," and then came to mean "someone who doesn't have a degree from a fancy university," and then it started to mean "people who liked to pretend they have degrees and are generally fancy and look down on common people like shoemakers." Nowadays, snob isn't only for people with false pretentions. Rich people who despise less tasteful folks are snobs, too.
Vocabulary lists containing snob
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
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Nine Stories
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Monologues
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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.
"They said I'm self-entitled, I'm a posh girl who is being a snob."
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
“I’m not a shoe snob or anything. But, you know, if you’re going to pay money for shoes ….”
From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2026
As for Woolf, her status as a feminist heroine may be somewhat dimmed by the fact that she was a terrific snob.
From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2026
He was derided as a snob when he suggested, in a few statements over the years, that he had to dumb down his work for uncultured audiences.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 29, 2025
It was very phony--I mean him being such a big snob and all.
From "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger
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.
