proud

proud 1 Proud, arrogant, haughty, lordly, insolent, overbearing, supercilious, disdainful can mean in common filled with or showing a sense of one's superiority and scorn for what one regards as in some way inferior.

Proud (see also proud under PRIDE n) usually connotes a lofty or imposing manner, attitude, or appearance that may be interpreted as dignified, elevated, spirited, imperious, satisfied, contemptuous, or inordinately conceited according to the circumstances

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oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? Like a swift-flitting meteor, a fast-flying cloud ... he passeth from life to his rest in the grave— William Knox

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she's a stuck-up proud girl, and she hasn't a proper decency— Buck

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a dictator convinced that destiny lies in his own hands is bound to be proud, ruthless and ultimately destructive— Billy Graham

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Arrogant implies a disposition to claim for oneself, often domineeringly or aggressively, more consideration or importance than is warranted or justly due

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the Junker developed into a rude, domineering, arrogant type of man, without cultivation or culture— Shirer

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in holidays the atmosphere of home is apt to be dominated by the young people. Consequently they tend to become arrogant and hard— Russell

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Haughty implies a strong consciousness of exalted birth, station, or character, and a more or less obvious scorn of those who are regarded as beneath one

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pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall— Prov 16:18

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his walk, his haughty, indifferent manner spoke his scorn for the two . . . men who accompanied him— Hervey

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The last four words of this group are more specific than the preceding terms and refer more to the ways in which arrogance or haughtiness is exhibited than to the temperament or attitude.

Lordly usually suggests pomposity, strutting, or an arrogant display of power or magnificence

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a lordly indifference to making money by his writings— Stephen

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a lordly foreman in a shoe factory —a man who, in distributing the envelopes, had the manner of a prince doling out favors to a servile group of petitioners— Dreiser

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Insolent implies both haughtiness and extreme contemptuousness; it carries a stronger implication than the preceding words of a will to insult or affront the person so treated

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she could not determine whether the silent contempt of the gentlemen, or the insolent smiles of the ladies, were more intolerable— Austen

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vile food, vile beyond belief, slapped down before their sunken faces by insolent waiters— A. Porter

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Overbearing suggests a bullying or tyrannical disposition, or intolerable insolence

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an overbearing employer

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back country militiamen whose rough overbearing manners sorely tried the Indians' patience— Amer. Guide Series: Tenn.

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Supercilious stresses such superficial aspects of haughtiness as a lofty patronizing manner intended to repel advances. It refers to one's behavior to others rather than to one's conceit of oneself, though the latter is always implied; often it suggests not only scorn but also incivility

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they have no blood these people. Their voices, their supercilious eyes that look you up and down— Galsworthy

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supercilious and haughty they [camels] turn this way and that, like the dowagers of very aristocratic families at a plebeian evening party— Huxley

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Disdainful implies a more passionate scorn for what is beneath one than does supercilious; it as often as not suggests justifiable pride or justifiable scorn

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very elegant in velvet and broadcloth, with delicately cut, disdainful features,—one had only to see him cross the room ... to feel the electric quality under his cold reserve— Cather

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a democracy smugly disdainful of new ideas would be a sick democracy— Eisenhower

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Analogous words: contemptuous, scornful, disdainful (see corresponding nouns under DESPISE): pretentious, ostentatious (see SHOWY): imperious, domineering, *masterful

Antonyms: humble: ashamed

2 vain, vainglorious (see under PRIDE n)

Analogous words: exalted, magnified, aggrandized (see EXALT): self-satisfied, Complacent, smug: contented, satisfied (see under SATISFY)

Antonyms: ashamed: humble