hoity-toity

Noun

hoity-toity (countable and uncountable, plural hoity-toities)

1. (archaic, uncountable) Behaviour adopted to demonstrate one's superiority; pretentious or snobbish behaviour; airs and graces.
   • [O]ne piece of early homage still / Exacted of you; after your three bouts / At hoitytoity, great men with long words, / And so forth,— […]1875, Robert Browning, Aristophanes’ Apology […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 142

   Synonyms:

   affectations, airs, huffiness, pretensions

2. (obsolete, uncountable) Flighty, giddy, or silly behaviour; also, noisy merriment.
   • The VViddovvs I observ'd that vvere marching off, vvith the marque out of their mouths, vvere hugely concern'd to be thought Young, and ſtill talking of Maſques, Balls, Fiddles, Treats; Chanting and Jigging to every tune they heard, and all upon the Hoyty-Toyty like mad vvenches of fifteen.1667, Francisco de Quevedo Villegas, “The Fourth Vision of Loving Fools”, in R[oger] L[’Estrange], transl., The Visions of Dom Francisco de Quevedo Villegas, […], London: […] H[enry] Herringman […]...
   • And I'll divert ye with my Hoyty toyty; / With Fortune's choicest Blessings may regale ye, / And Wealth, and Wine, and Women, never fail ye.1719, [Thomas] d’Urfey, “An Epilogue. For Crab and Gillian: In One of My Comedies.”, in Songs Compleat, Pleasant and Divertive; […], volume I, London: […] W. Pearson, for J[acob] Tonson, […]...

   Synonyms:

   flightiness, giddiness, silliness, frolic, high jinks, romping

3. (UK, countable, dialectal) A young woman regarded as flighty, giddy, or silly.
   • Whily Kate the Brown, the Plump, / The Frowzy Browzy, / Hoyty Toyty, / Covent-Garden Harridan, / Soon made poor Jockey’s Head to Ake, / And spoyl’d him for a merry Man.1719, [Thomas] d’Urfey, “The Scotch Cuckold: A New Song to a Northern Tune”, in Songs Compleat, Pleasant and Divertive; […], volume I, London: […] W. Pearson, for J[acob] Tonson, […], published 19th...

Adjective

hoity-toity (comparative hoity-toitier, superlative hoity-toitiest)

1. Affected or pretentious, sometimes with the implication of displaying an air of excessive fanciness or ostentation; pompous, self-important, snobbish; often displaying a feeling of patronizing self-aggrandizing or arrogant class superiority.
   • [S]ee what hoity-toity airs she took[…].1819 (date written), John Keats, “The Cap and Bells; or, The Jealousies”, in [Horace Elisha Scudder], editor, The Complete Poetical Works and Letters of John Keats, Cambridge edition, Boston, Mass....
   • The other models were gas fun, though they were all a bit hoity-toity.2016, Liz Nugent, “Karen”, in Lying in Wait, [Dublin]: Penguin Ireland, →ISBN, page 113
2. (obsolete) Flighty, giddy, silly; also, merry in a noisy manner.
   • [W]e have been married fifteen Years, I take it: and that hoighty toighty buſineſs ought, in Conſcience, to be over.1690, [John] Dryden, Amphitryon; or, The Two Sosia’s. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […]; and M. Tonson […], published 1691, →OCLC, Act II, scene ii, page 21

Adverb

hoity-toity (comparative more hoity-toity, superlative most hoity-toity)

1. (obsolete) Flightily, giddily.
2. (obsolete) Merrily, in a noisy manner.
   • Then hoity, toity, / VVhiſking, friſking, / Green vvas her govvn upon the graſs: / Oh! ſuch vvere the joys of our dancing days.1762 December 8 (first performance), [Isaac Bickerstaffe], “Air XVIII”, in Love in a Village; a Comic Opera. […], 4th edition, London: […] W. Griffin; for J[ohn] Newbery, and W. Nicoll, […]; G[eorge]...

Interjection

1. (dated, obsolete) Expressing disapprobation or surprise at acts or words that are pompous or snobbish, or flighty.
   • Hoity toity, VVhat have I to do vvith his Dreams or his Divination—Body o' me, this is a Trick to defer Signing the Conveyance.1695, [William] Congreve, Love for Love: A Comedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act III, scene x, page 46
   • ‘Hoity! toity!’ cries Honour, ‘Madam is in her Airs, I proteſt.[…]’1749, Henry Fielding, “Containing Scenes of Altercation, of No Very Uncommon Kind”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII, page 59