uppitily

comparative more uppitily · superlative most uppitily

1. rareIn an uppity manner.

   Seething at her mistreatment of him in favor of the heartless and pretentious Yasha, Yepikhodov accuses Dunyasha of reducing him “to a complete and utter state of mind.” To which she replies uppitily, “Leave me alone; I’m busy dreaming.”

   1988 September 16, Carolyn Clay, “Cherry jubilee: Trinity turns 25 with Chekhov”, in Richard M. Gaines, editor, The Boston Phoenix, volume XVII, number 38, Boston, Mass.: Boston Phoenix Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, section 3, page 26

   2 more examples

   Barber A. M. Cash, who is one big reason—about 300 pounds, I’d say—why Charlotte lawyers are not shaggy-haired, until quite recently got a kick out of uppitily walking through the front room at home where the boys and girls were in anguish over the jig-saw puzzles. “Any time you want ’em finished I’ll do it in ten minutes,” he’d tell ’em. They’d chase him out and go back to worrying. But one evening they called his bluff.

   1933 May 12, T[imothy] M[aurice] Pridgen, “Leaves from a Reporter’s Note-book”, in The Charlotte News, final edition, Charlotte, N.C., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 24, column 1

   “You describe an impossible task,” sniffed Punnish uppitily as he and Pembish headed for the tea-rooms at Downturn Abbey. “After all, it would be impossible to reassemble all the cannonballs in those 7 equal little square-pyramidal stacks into one big square-pyramidal stack twice as tall as any one of those 7 equal little square-pyramids of cannonballs.” What was Pembish’s uncontainable retainer on about?

   2015 October 31, “Maslanka puzzles”, in The Guardian Weekly, London, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 48, column 2