highbrow

[hahy-brou] /ˈhaɪˌbraʊ/
noun
1.
a person of superior intellectual interests and tastes.
2.
a person with intellectual or cultural pretensions; intellectual snob.
3.
the crestfish.
adjective
4.
Also, highbrowed. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a highbrow.
Origin
1895-1900; high + brow
Related forms
highbrowism, noun
Synonyms
4. intellectual, scholarly, cultured; bookish, snobbish, pseudointellectual.
Examples from the web for highbrow
  • The team succeeds in developing their highbrow processor, which not only meets expectations, but begins thinking for itself.
  • Promenade along the harborside boardwalk before dinner at one of the highbrow, on-site eateries.
  • But this same small locale is also deeply interesting in highbrow ways.
  • His voice had the crooning humor of a highbrow vaudevillian.
British Dictionary definitions for highbrow

highbrow

/ˈhaɪˌbraʊ/
noun
1.
a person of scholarly and erudite tastes
adjective
2.
appealing to highbrows: highbrow literature
Word Origin and History for highbrow
n.

"person of superior intellect and taste," 1902, back-formation from high-browed (adj.), which is attested from 1891, from high (adj.) + brow (cf. also lowbrow).

Slang definitions & phrases for highbrow

highbrow

adjective
  1. (also highbrowed) Idealistic; snobbish: all them high-brow sermons (1891+)
  2. Impractical; unrealistic: another silly highbrow scheme
noun

An intellectual; person of notable education and culture; double dome, egghead: One does not need to be a ''highbrow'' to read this book (1902+)

[said to have been coined by the humorist Will Irwin as a back formation fr high-browed]