Results for smart aleck
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Dictionary:

smart aleck

  (ăl'ĭk) pronunciation
n. Informal.
  1. A person regarded as obnoxiously self-assertive.
  2. An impudent person.

[Perhaps after Aleck Hoag, 19th-century American confidence man and thief.]

smartaleck smart'-al'eck (smärt'ăl'ĭk) or smart'-al'eck·y (-ĭ-kē) adj.
 
 
Thesaurus: smart aleck

noun

    One who is obnoxiously self-assertive and arrogant: malapert, witling. Informal know-it-all, saucebox, smarty, smarty-pants, wisenheimer. Slang wiseacre, wisecracker, wise guy. See good/bad.

 
Idioms: smart aleck

An impudent or obnoxiously self-assertive individual, a wise guy, as in New teachers often have a hard time coping with the smart alecks in their classes. This expression, dating from the mid-1800s, probably alluded to a person of this description who was named Alec or Alexander, but his identity has been lost.


 
WordNet: smart aleck
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: an upstart who makes conceited, sardonic, insolent comments
  Synonyms: wise guy, wiseacre, wisenheimer, weisenheimer


 
 

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more

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