toffee-nosed

[taw-fee-nohzd, tof-ee-]

adjective

British Slang.

1. stuck-up; conceited; pretentious.

   a toffee-nosed butler; a toffee-nosed shop.

toffee-nosed

adjective

1. slang,  pretentious or supercilious; used esp of snobbish people

Word History and Origins

Origin of toffee-nosed¹

First recorded in 1920–25

Word History and Origins

Origin of toffee-nosed¹

C20: perhaps coined as a pun on toffy stylish, grand: see _toff

Example Sentences

To be sure, the toffee-nosed Brits love nothing more than preserving their own delusional sense of self-worth by sneering at the arriviste powers.

Read more on The Guardian

Gold wrote not so much in sentences and paragraphs as in litanies: cascades of facts, of visual and tactile sensations, of wild references that ricocheted from the toffee-nosed to the profane.

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Yet this hard-nosed apprehension was Mr Coulson’s big contribution to the rather toffee-nosed Tory operation.

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And let's not get all supercilious and toffee-nosed here about horsemeat, for, as it turns out, it's probably formed a significant part of our diet for the past decade.

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Some toffee-nosed commentators poured scorn on this decision, claiming that an actor would not have the right credentials to present an arts programme on TV.

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