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- Dictionaryhighbrow/ˈhʌɪbraʊ/
adjective
- 1. intellectual or rarefied in taste: "innovatory art had a small, mostly highbrow following"
noun
- 1. a highbrow person: "she considered all those without television as highbrows, intellectual snobs, or paupers"
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HIGHBROW definition: 1. (of books, plays, etc.) involving serious and complicated or artistic ideas, or (of people…. Learn more.
The meaning of HIGHBROW is a person who possesses or has pretensions to superior learning or culture.
HIGHBROW meaning: 1. (of books, plays, etc.) involving serious and complicated or artistic ideas, or (of people…. Learn more.
Anything highbrow is usually intellectual in nature, and people who appreciate such things are also called highbrows. Highbrows usually have money and are sometimes considered snobby or hoity-toity. The opposite of highbrow is lowbrow, which refers to vulgar and less sophisticated culture and people.
Used colloquially as a noun or adjective, " highbrow " is synonymous with intellectual; as an adjective, it also means elite, and generally carries a connotation of high culture. The term, first recorded in 1875, draws its metonymy from the pseudoscience of phrenology, which teaches that people with large foreheads are more intelligent. [1] .
If you describe someone as highbrow, you mean that they are interested in serious subjects of a very intellectual nature, especially when these are difficult to understand. Highbrow critics sniff that the programme was 'too sophisticated' to appeal to most viewers.
Definition of highbrow adjective in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.
