imperious

imperious
    adj 1: having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of
           those one views as unworthy; "some economists are
           disdainful of their colleagues in other social
           disciplines"; "haughty aristocrats"; "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"; "a more swaggering mood
           than usual"- W.L.Shirer [syn: {disdainful}, {haughty},
           {imperious}, {lordly}, {overbearing}, {prideful},
           {sniffy}, {supercilious}, {swaggering}]
    

Imperious \Im*pe"ri*ous\, a. [L. imperiosus: cf. F.
   imp['e]rieux. See {Imperial}.]
   1. Commanding; ascendant; imperial; lordly; majestic. [Obs.]
      "A vast and imperious mind." --Tilloison.
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            Therefore, great lords, be, as your titles witness,
            Imperious.                            --Shak.
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   2. Haughly; arrogant; overbearing; as, an imperious tyrant;
      an imperious manner.
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            This imperious man will work us all
            From princes into pages.              --Shak.
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            His bold, contemptuous, and imperious spirit soon
            made him conspicuous.                 --Macaulay.
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   3. Imperative; urgent; compelling.
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            Imperious need, which can not be withstood.
                                                  --Dryden.

   Syn: Dictatorial; haughty; domineering; overbearing; lordly;
        tyrannical; despotic; arrogant; imperative;
        authoritative; commanding; pressing.

   Usage: {Imperious}, {Lordly}, {Domineering}. One who is
          imperious exercises his authority in a manner highly
          offensive for its spirit and tone; one who is lordly
          assumes a lofty air in order to display his
          importance; one who is domineering gives orders in a
          way to make others feel their inferiority.
          [1913 Webster]
    

85 Moby Thesaurus words for "imperious":
      U, absolute, absolutist, absolutistic, acute, arbitrary,
      aristocratic, arrogant, authoritarian, authoritative, autocratic,
      binding, bossy, clamorous, coactive, compelling, compulsatory,
      compulsive, compulsory, constraining, critical, crucial, crying,
      de rigueur, despotic, dictatorial, domineering, driving, dynastic,
      elitist, exigent, feudal, grinding, heavy-handed, high and mighty,
      high-handed, high-pressure, high-priority, hubristic, imperative,
      imperatorial, imperatorious, imperial, insistent, instant,
      irresistible, kinglike, kingly, lordly, magisterial, magistral,
      majestic, mandatory, masterful, monarchal, monarchial, monarchic,
      monocratic, must, necessary, obligatory, oppressive, overbearing,
      overruling, peremptory, pivotal, pressing, princelike, princely,
      purple, queenlike, queenly, regal, repressive, required,
      restraining, royal, severe, sovereign, strict, stringent,
      suppressive, tyrannical, tyrannous, urgent