high-toned

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English

Adjective

high-toned (comparative more high-toned, superlative most high-toned)

  1. Having a pretentious, high-class attitude
    • 1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXXV, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 272:
      A robber is more high-toned than what a pirate is—as a general thing. In most countries they’re awful high up in the nobility—dukes and such.
    • 2001, Susan Stryker, Queer Pulp, page 14:
      New American Library took an atypically high-toned approach to illustrating the Signet edition of William's Streetcar Named Desire, using a painting by acclaimed social realist Thomas Hart Benton.