Meanings
comparative more high-toned · superlative most high-toned
- Having a pretentious, high-class attitude
A robber is more high-toned than what a pirate is—as a general thing. In most countries they’re awful high up in the nobility—dukes and such.
1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXXV, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 2722 more examples
Maybe real estate developers with friends on the City Council have wanted to convert Hennepin Avenue, where the Locker Room and the bookstores are located, into a higher-toned entertainment district.
1979 December 29, Rick Hillegas, “Minneapolis Raid Nets 125 Men”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 23, page 3New American Library took an atypically high-toned approach to illustrating the Signet edition of William's Streetcar Named Desire, using a painting by acclaimed social realist Thomas Hart Benton.
2001, Susan Stryker, Queer Pulp, page 14
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivepretentiously elegant
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Cite this entry
high-toned. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/high-toned
“high-toned.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/high-toned. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “high-toned,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/high-toned.
Source: high-toned on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.