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Meaning of poncy | Babel Free

Adjective CEFR B1
/ˈpɒnsi/

Definitions

  1. Of, relating to, or (supposedly) characteristic of a ponce.
    British, Commonwealth, Ireland, derogatory, informal
  2. Intended to impress others, particularly in an excessively refined or ostentatious manner; affected, pretentious.
    British, Commonwealth, Ireland, derogatory, informal
  3. Chiefly of a male person: effeminate; gay, homosexual.
    British, Commonwealth, Ireland, derogatory, informal

Examples

“I mean, you could tell he was a Pom all right, but he was trying, he didn't sound so poncy any more, [...]”
“And in his ponciest voice he said, 'I do most humbly apologise.'”
“Get off my land. Don't come back without a search warrant and by God it had better be signed by someone in authority, not your poncy boss.”
“He even helps make eggs Benedict, his namesake. Well, he's called Benedict, Anna's slightly poncey choice, but no one's ever called him that.”
“We found a decent guesthouse to stay in and then went to a poncey restaurant for food (‘poncey’ meaning that meals and drinks for two cost 3 dollars instead of 2!)”
“You could tell from his long hair, grungy clothes, the poncey novel an newspaper on his dashboard an Coldplay album playin in his car that he was a muthafuckin coconut. So white he was inside his brown skin, he probably talked like those gorafied desis who read the news on TV. Probably even more poncier than the way how I used to talk. An think. Probly.”
“I'm not a person who finds meditation a doddle or to whom yoga comes naturally. To tell you the truth, I find the whole business a bit poncey and contrary to the way I used to see myself.”
“She also finds the “poncy” approach that dominates the modern restaurant trade utterly grating.”
“With sudden interest Morse turned up the volume [of the radio]: the voice was donnish, slightly effeminate. [...] 'Shert erp, you poncy twit!' he said aloud, got out of bed, pulled on his clothes, walked downstairs and dialled the speaking clock.”
“It was Johannesburg's only regular gay bar in those days, and not even a proper bar. [...] Since apartheid was a way of life, only the ponciest of African queens, only the butchest of Indian dykes could appear—noncitizens acceptable, in this underworld that was deviant but uncourageous, so long as they were no more than bedding material.”
“After lunch, Her mother suddenly produced a poncy lace dress out of her bag and announced, 'This is the family christening dress, which you were christened in,' etc., etc. [...] Looking at it close to, I saw that it was even poncier than the other one.”
“He wore a cream-colored linen suit of a cut and color designed expressly for garden parties, the kind of suit Tom would surely have called "poncy" had he seen it on another man.”
“None of the gallery staff took any notice of a gangly, stick-thin, nose-picking, acne-faced youth wearing a plastic imitation leather jacket, winkle-picker shoes and a greasy Mick Jagger hairstyle. We all looked like that in those days, except those poncey Mods.”
“Fixing your hair is also something that needs to be done in private (unless it is literally a quick pat and fluff). There are some who will happily stand in front of the mirror (there is only one mirror, you see, none of this fancy mirror-above-every-sink malarkey) and style their hair with pout and pose included, but they are usually too popular to get abuse about how poncey and womanly they look.”

CEFR level

B1
Intermediate
This word is part of the CEFR B1 vocabulary — intermediate level.

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