pompous, a. (adv.)
(ˈpɒmpəs)
Also 5 pompyus, Sc. pomposs, 5–6 -ouse, 5–8 -ose, 6 -os, Sc. -us, 6–7 -eous, 6–8 -ious.
[= F. pompeux full of display (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. late L. pompōsus pompous, stately, solemn, f. pompa pomp: see -ous.]
1. Characterized by pomp or stately show; magnificent, splendid; † processional.
| 1430–40 Lydg. Bochas viii. xxvi. (MS. Bodl. 263) 2 With a gret host, most Pompous in his glorie. 1528 Roy Rede me (title-p.), I will ascende makynge my state so hye That my pompous honoure shall never dye. 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. iv. xix. (1634) 724 They..goe in a long pompous shew to carrie a Pageant of holy oyle. 1638 Junius Paint. Ancients 60 The Poets bring..upon a stage..all what is pompous, grave, and delightfull. 1720 Waterland Eight Serm. 175 Upon this Occasion,..it pleased God, in the most solemn and pompous Manner to proclaim the high Dignity of God the Son. 1738 Birch Milton M.'s Wks. 1738 I. 47 The pompous Edition of it [Paradise Lost] printed by Subscription in 1688. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. India II. 342 There was a general fair and many processions and other pompous shows. 1896 T. F. Tout Edw. I, iv. 82 At the head of a pompous embassy. |
2. Characterized by an exaggerated display of self-importance or dignity; boastful, vain-glorious, arrogant; consequential, pretentious, ceremonious; of language: inflated, turgid.
| c 1386 Chaucer Monk's T. 565 Was neuere Capitayn vnder a kyng..moore pompous in heigh presumpcioun Than Oloferne. c 1460 Wisdom 1125 in Macro Plays, Conforme yow not to þis pompyus glory, But reforme in gostly felynge. 1529 More Dyaloge iii. Wks. 225/2 If they kepe few seruauntes we call them nyggardes. If they kepe many we cal them pompouse. 1631 Weever Anc. Fun. Mon. 785 Coming, after a pompous and bragging manner. 1749 Chesterfield Lett. (1792) II. 311 In spite of all the pompous and specious epithets he may assume. 1804 Med. Jrnl. XII. 108 It has, however, often been dignified with pompous names. 1814 Jane Austen Mansf. Park viii, Mrs. Rushworth, a well-meaning, civil, prosing, pompous woman, who thought nothing of consequence, but as it related to her own and her son's concerns. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 118 Those who spin pompous theories out of nothing. |
| comb. 1897 Flandrau Harvard Episodes 44 In one hand he carried a pompous looking bottle. |
B. as
adv. = pompously.
| 1754 J. Shebbeare Matrimony (1766) II. 55 The Earl having talked extremely pompous of the Honour and Antiquity of his Family. |