Word.ws English Dictionary

jumped-up

jumped-up adjective: thinking or acting as if one is superior, as by pretending to be of a higher class or having greater authority than is the case.

Adjective

jumped-up (comparative more jumped-up, superlative most jumped-up)

  1. (derogatory, idiomatic) Thinking or acting as if one is superior, as by pretending to be of a higher class or having greater authority than is the case.
    • We're doomed if this wee jumped-up monkey gets Gordon Smith's blessing.2007, Nov 27. Scott Murray, writing in Guardian Unlimited: "Stuttgart 3-2 Rangers"
  2. Having risen from a lowly station or an inferior position, often with a conceited or arrogant attitude.
    • You jumped-up, cheap, Coventry bagman, / silk-sampling, no doubt, is your biz1895, Punch, or the London Charivari, 24 August, 1895, "'Arry on Harry", https://books.google.ca/books?id=S5kwAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22jumped-up+cheap+Coventry%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s
    • Well, you can have all my share of democracy. Between you and me, Gert, it's mainly a name for a lot of jumped-up ignoramuses who have no idea of how little they do know.1919, J.C. Snaith, chapter XXXIV, in The Undefeated, pages 233–234
    Synonyms:
    upstart

Synonyms of jumped-up

Forms of jumped-up

comparativemore jumped-up
superlativemost jumped-up

Questions about jumped-up

What does jumped-up mean?
Jumped-up means thinking or acting as if one is superior, as by pretending to be of a higher class or having greater authority than is the case.
What part of speech is jumped-up?
Jumped-up is an adjective.

Words near jumped-up in the dictionary

  1. jumped to it
  2. jumped up
  3. jumped upon
  4. jumped-start
  5. jumped-starts
  6. jumped-up
  7. jumpedst
  8. jumper
  9. jumper cable
  10. jumper cables
  11. jumper punch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jumped-up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-jumped-up.ogg.

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