high-and-mighty
high and mighty
Haughty and scornful. How can you act so high and mighty after all the mistakes you've made?
See also: and, high, mighty
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
high-and-mighty
Fig. self-important and arrogant. I don't know why William is so high-and-mighty. He's no better than the rest of us. The boss acts high-and-mighty because he can fire us all.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
high and mighty
Conceited, haughty, as in She was too high and mighty to make her own bed. This expression originally alluded to high-born rulers and was being transferred to the merely arrogant by the mid-1600s.
See also: and, high, mighty
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
high and mighty
1 important and influential. 2 thinking or acting as though you are more important than others; arrogant. informalSee also: and, high, mighty
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
ˌhigh and ˈmighty
(informal) behaving as though you think you are more important than other people: He’s too high and mighty to mix with ordinary people like us!See also: and, high, mighty
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
high and mighty
Arrogant, conceited. Although originally used to describe either spiritual or temporal rulers, this term soon came to mean individuals who used their position of real or imagined power to act haughtily. Thus, while fifteenth- and sixteenth-century sources might address a ruler as “Right heigh and mighty Prince” (as in Hall’s Chronicle of Edward IV, 1548), a century later Richard Whitlock (Zoötamia, 1654) would write of “their high and mighty word, Experience.” It was a cliché by the time Thackeray wrote, “Some of these bankers are as high and mighty as the oldest families” (The Newcomes, 1855).
See also: and, high, mighty
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- high and mighty
- be as high as a kite
- set (one's) sights high
- set your sights high/low
- the heat is on
- ride high
- riding high
- near and dear to (one)
- have a high opinion of (someone or something)
- in high gear