What does "hoity-toity" mean?
Behaviour adopted to demonstrate one's superiority; pretentious or snobbish behaviour; airs and graces.
Hoity-toity
/ˈhɔɪtiˈtɔɪti/ adj, adv, intj, noun
adj, adv, intj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: Behaviour adopted to demonstrate one's superiority; pretentious or snobbish behaviour; airs and graces.
- Grammar: hoity-toity is listed as adj, adv, intj, noun.
- Nearest alternatives: arrogant, big, condescending, condescension.
- Usage evidence: Don't get all hoity-toity with me.
How to use "hoity-toity"
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- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "hoity-toity" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
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- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
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Before you rely on this definition
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Compare nearby meanings
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Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "hoity-toity" is acting as adj, adv, intj, noun in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
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Definitions
Noun
- 1 Behaviour adopted to demonstrate one's superiority; pretentious or snobbish behaviour; airs and graces. archaic, uncountable
"[O]ne piece of early homage still / Exacted of you; after your three bouts / At hoitytoity, great men with long words, / And so forth,— […]"
- 2 Flighty, giddy, or silly behaviour; also, noisy merriment. obsolete, uncountable
"The VViddovvs I observ'd that vvere marching off, vvith the marque out of their mouths, vvere hugely concern'd to be thought Young, and ſtill talking of Maſques, Balls, Fiddles, Treats; Chanting and Jigging to every tune they heard, and all upon the Hoyty-Toyty like mad vvenches of fifteen."
- 3 A young woman regarded as flighty, giddy, or silly. British, countable, dialectal
"Whily Kate the Brown, the Plump, / The Frowzy Browzy, / Hoyty Toyty, / Covent-Garden Harridan, / Soon made poor Jockey’s Head to Ake, / And spoyl’d him for a merry Man."
Adjective
- 1 Affected or pretentious, sometimes with the implication of displaying an air of excessive fanciness or ostentation; pompous, self-important, snobbish; often displaying a feeling of patronizing self-aggrandizing or arrogant class superiority.
"[S]ee what hoity-toity airs she took[…]."
- 2 Flighty, giddy, silly; also, merry in a noisy manner. obsolete
"[W]e have been married fifteen Years, I take it: and that hoighty toighty buſineſs ought, in Conſcience, to be over."
Adjective
- 1 affectedly genteel; to carry an air of affected importance; to be snobbish and haughty wordnet
Adverb
- 1 Flightily, giddily. obsolete
- 2 Merrily, in a noisy manner. obsolete
"Then hoity, toity, / VVhiſking, friſking, / Green vvas her govvn upon the graſs: / Oh! ſuch vvere the joys of our dancing days."
Intj
- 1 Expressing disapprobation or surprise at acts or words that are pompous or snobbish, or flighty. dated, obsolete
"Hoity toity, VVhat have I to do vvith his Dreams or his Divination—Body o' me, this is a Trick to defer Signing the Conveyance."
Example
"Don't get all hoity-toity with me."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "hoity-toity"?
Common synonyms include: arrogant, big, condescending, condescension, disdainful, domineering.
How do you use "hoity-toity" in a sentence?
Don't get all hoity-toity with me.
How do you pronounce "hoity-toity"?
Pronounced /ˈhɔɪtiˈtɔɪti/.
Etymology
Probably from hoit (“to behave frivolously and thoughtlessly; to play the fool”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’), reduplicated with a change of the initial consonant. The noun is attested earlier than the adjective.