snobby
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of snobby
Explanation
Snobby people think they're better than others. A snobby club might only allow members who dress a certain way or attend a certain school, excluding everyone else. Some snobby people are wealthy and believe that those who have less are inferior, while other snobby folks are smart and well-educated, and look down on people who are uneducated. Snobby is an informal word that describes a snob, which originally meant "a shoemaker or a shoemaker's apprentice." From that meaning it evolved through "lowly person" to "lowly person imitating a social superior" and finally "person who despises those considered inferior."
Vocabulary lists containing snobby
Keep It Together, Keiko Carter
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Katt vs. Dogg
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The Great Greene Heist
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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.
See Examples For:
Cue another round of snobby harrumphing about the inclusion of non-Power 4 schools like James Madison and Tulane, as if those schools play on crabgrass fields with dirt patches and donkeys.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025
“I think we can all be a bit snobby in the fashion business and think, maybe this is, you know, a side gig,” Wintour said in the doc.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2025
Dame Patricia Routledge, who has died at the age of 96, imprinted herself on the national consciousness as the snobby Hyacinth Bucket.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2025
It’s easy to blame this lack of welcome on exclusionary, or perhaps just plain snobby, elites.
From Salon ● Sep. 17, 2025
“I don’t know. He’s—well, snobby and smart-aleck. Always got a chip on his shoulder. And he’s dirty.”
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
The details were precise because St. Aubyn actually had the British upper-class background that, as Clive James noted, the snobbier Evelyn Waugh longed for.
From New York Times ● May 31, 2021
Isn’t it snobbier, really, to expect us to stick to a pre-approved checklist of Oscar hopefuls?
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 8, 2019
If he were plain Mr Philip Windsor, he would be seen as a tiresome old toff, with some drearily old-fashioned prejudices: an older, snobbier version of Nigel Farage but without the roguish charm.
From The Guardian ● May 4, 2017
Lanyard Envy has been surpassed by Clearance Envy, a far snobbier Freudian affliction.
From Washington Post
Winchester Model 12 It is well known among the snobbier of shotgun enthusiasts that no repeating shotgun can handle as well as an over/under or a side-by-side.
From Time Magazine Archive
Even the snobbiest TV snoots can’t resist Alan Cumming as the playfully sadistic laird of Ardross Castle, emceeing what is essentially a closed circle murder mystery.
From Salon ● Jan. 15, 2026
Dad hats are a go-to fashion accessory for even the snobbiest among us.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2021
It was named as best film of the decade by some of the snobbiest film mags in the firmament, including Cahiers du Cinema, Slant, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, IndieWIRE and The Village Voice.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 3, 2010
I was disappointed to learn that you have ranked Washington, D.C., as the second snobbiest city in America, behind only San Francisco.
From Washington Post
They belonged to the snobbiest element in the school....
From Clark's Field by Herrick, Robert
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.
