jumped-up
- adjective
- /ˈdʒʌmpt ʌp/
- Offensive
- I can't stand his jumped-up attitude since the promotion.
Examples
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After his sudden promotion, he started acting like a jumped-up manager, giving orders to everyone around him.
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His jumped-up attitude annoyed those who had worked there for years.
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Some colleagues think she's just a jumped-up assistant who doesn't deserve the promotion.
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The tabloids dismissed him as a jumped-up manager who owed everything to luck.
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That jumped-up manager thinks he can boss everyone around.
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Nobody likes the jumped-up receptionist who thinks she holds all the power in the office.
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His jumped-up attitude since he became team leader has annoyed many of his colleagues.
Synonyms
Claiming to be more important or successful than you are
Too much pride and confidence that makes people dislike you
Antonyms
How Arrogant
Surface Forms
Morphology
jumped-up = jump (semi-transparent) = up + jump + ed
The components 'jump(ed)' + 'up' suggest a rapid rise, which relates to the sense, but the idiomatic extension to 'pretentiously self-important' is not fully predictable for an average learner. [Postprocessing: moved 'up' from base_words to prefix]
Etymology
Jumped-up comes from the image of someone who has jumped up, that is, 'suddenly moved up' in job or social position. A helpful way to remember is to think of the word upstart: a 'jumped-up' person acts more important than they really are after a quick rise, so the word means behaving as if of higher rank.