pompous Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite puffed up with vanity
    portentous; grandiloquent; overblown; pontifical.
    • a grandiloquent and boastful manner
    • overblown oratory
    • a pompous speech
    • pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and pontifical hooey"- Newsweek
  2. adjective characterized by pomp and ceremony and stately display
    ceremonious.

WordNet

Pomp"ous adjective
Etymology
F. pompeux, L. pomposus. See Pomp.
Definitions
  1. Displaying pomp; stately; showy with grandeur; magnificent; as, a pompous procession.
  2. Ostentatious; pretentious; boastful; vainlorious; as, pompous manners; a pompous style. "Pompous in high presumption." Chaucer.
    he pompous vanity of the old schoolmistress. Thackeray.
    -- Pom"ous*ly, adv. -- Pomp"ous*ness, n.

Webster 1913