imperious — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. Domineering, arrogant, or overbearing.

   Usage

   • not-comparable

   Synonyms

   authoritarianbossydictatorialdomineeringoverbearing

   Examples

   The frowning lookes of fiery Tamburlaine, That with his terrour and imperious eies, Commands the hearts of his aſſociates, […]

   […] she glanced about her in an imperious, challenging sort of way, with looks and gestures that clearly were unstudied.

   More examples (5)

   She was quick, beautiful, imperious, while he was quiet, slow, and misty.

   I had travelled one morning down to Aylesbury, and had left my train, and was about to cross the footbridge, when I heard the imperious whistle of a "B1." I paused, and round the bend came the "Master Cutler" with its engine working absolutely flat out.

   “Hey, sir? Sir, excuse me?” The blonde was calling out to him, in imperious tones that insisted on a reply.

   Saliba, meanwhile, has returned to Arsenal looking like the finished article after the 21-year-old France defender spent loan spells at Saint-Etienne, Nice and Marseille. He has been imperious since the opening game at Brentford, establishing a formidable partnership with Gabriel.

   Back in France, once the fourth republic yielded to the fifth, Gaullist rule proved imperious and sometimes blinkered – but effective.

2. Urgent; intensely compelling.

   Usage

   • not-comparable

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   Circumstances of an imperious nature, which it is unnecessary to relate here, had prevented him from taking service with that gallant army which had fought the disastrous campaigns ending with the fall of Corinth.

   An old man to whom a few drops of phosphoric ether had been administered experienced repeated and imperious venereal wants.

3. Imperial or regal.

   Usage

   • not-comparable
   • Obsolete

   Examples

   All the terrors of Antichrist; his cruel ediets and anathemas that were thundered from his imperious throne, like storms of fire and brimstone […]

Adjective

1. having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy

   Synonyms

   disdainfulhaughtylordlyoverbearingpridefulsniffysuperciliousswaggering

   Examples

   some economists are disdainful of their colleagues in other social disciplines

   haughty aristocrats

   More examples (4)

   his lordly manners were offensive

   walked with a prideful swagger

   very sniffy about breaches of etiquette

   his mother eyed my clothes with a supercilious air