high-toned

English

Adjective

high-toned (comparative more high-toned, superlative most high-toned)

1. Having a pretentious, high-class attitude
   • 1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXXV, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 272:

     A robber is more high-toned than what a pirate is—as a general thing. In most countries they’re awful high up in the nobility—dukes and such.

   • 1979 December 29, Rick Hillegas, “Minneapolis Raid Nets 125 Men”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 23, page 3:

     Maybe real estate developers with friends on the City Council have wanted to convert Hennepin Avenue, where the Locker Room and the bookstores are located, into a higher-toned entertainment district.

   • 2001, Susan Stryker, Queer Pulp, page 14:

     New American Library took an atypically high-toned approach to illustrating the Signet edition of William's Streetcar Named Desire, using a painting by acclaimed social realist Thomas Hart Benton.