highbrow

1. derogatorysometimesIntellectually stimulating, highly cultured, sophisticated.

   highbrow entertainment

   2 more examples

   “He's so darn afraid you'll be offended if he smokes. You scare him. Every time he speaks of the weather you jump him because he ain't talking about poetry or Gertie—Goethe?—or some other highbrow junk. You've got him so leery he scarcely dares to come here.”

   1920, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XIV, in Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC

   They tend to regard the socialist intellectuals as nothing more than a pernicious bunch of highbrow radicals without appreciating their influence […]

   1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 423

   Antonyms: lowbrow

plural highbrows

1. derogatorysometimesA cultured or learned person or thing.

   Synonyms: intellectual, scholar · Antonyms: lowbrow