highfalutin• Thus, when awards time arrives, the old inferioritycomplexes become a factor and decisions often go in vaguely highfalutindirections.• Despite all of the highfalutingadgets, intelligence for the most part was extremely poor.• If you call that highfalutinmanagementscience, then I am a highfalutin management scientist.• I hate it when people use highfalutin' words when regular ones will do.
Originhighfalutin
(1800-1900)high + falutin, perhaps from fluting“making a high sound (as if) on the flute”