highbrow
10
8.1
- adjective
- /ˈhaɪˌbraʊ/
:
intelectual
- Passages are being published in a highbrow magazine.
- highbrow and lowbrow
- highbrow culture
- highbrow literature
And I was going to be on TV and not just telling jokes, but like doing a little highbrow sort of thing with a big star.
- And I was going to be on TV and not just telling jokes, but like doing a little highbrow sort of thing with a big star.
- I don't have to be, you know, this highbrow concept of what, you know, some people think of as, you know, a great writer.
- I might be a little snarky sometimes, but like I tried for years to be highbrow straight down the line science.
Examples
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For highbrow culture producers, scholarly debates were not simply clashes of ideas.
Academic text (2002) -
Ethics may sound like a topic that is a bit too "highbrow" for many sports administrators and coaches.
Academic text (1998) -
...your opinion about highbrow music.
-
Yet it had a highbrow, scientific air about it.
Fiction book (1993) -
And what highbrow work of fiction might you be reading?
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But if your tastes are marginally more highbrow, I also have tips.
-
The Criterion was highbrow but not all that avant-garde.
Academic text (2010) -
The Nation contains a highbrow essay written by pro-war neocon convert Christopher Hitchens.
Blog text (33) -
Being a cultured person, she was raised to appreciate highbrow-type music by Mozart and Beethoven and other long-haired, highfalutin composers.
Fiction book (2001) -
Many people consider classical music to be a form of highbrow art that requires deep understanding.
Synonyms
5
5.1
A person who likes and understands art, music, and books
Someone who shows educated, serious tastes in art or books and seems a bit proud
Antonyms
Compounds
How Cultured
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Highbrow combines high and brow ('forehead'); people once thought a high forehead showed intelligence, so calling something highbrow suggests it is intellectual or culturally serious.