Meaning of airs and graces | Babel Free

Definitions

Behaviour adopted to demonstrate (originally) one's good upbringing; or (now) one's superiority; pretentious or snobbish behaviour.

derogatory, plural, plural-only

Equivalents

Examples

“He made a thouſand uggly Faces, / VVhich (as ſometimes in Ladies caſes) / VVere all deſign'd for Airs and Graces.”

“Nature has laid out all her airt in beautifying the face; […] giving it airs and graces that cannot be described, and surrounded it with such a flowing shade of hair as sets all its beauties in the most agreeable light.”

“Indeed, she rehearsed that exalted part in life with great satisfaction to herself, and to the amusement of old Sir Pitt, who chuckled at her airs and graces, and would laugh by the hour together at her assumptions of dignity and imitations of genteel life.”

“The station (1840) was originally Cheltenham but the more grandiose Cheltenham Spa since 1925, which feels a bit pretentious as the town has never allowed itself to assume such airs and graces.”

CEFR level