i Register
In some senses, donnish is marked as UK. Watch for register when choosing this word.
donnish
adj 2
Collocations
3ADJ.
all
VERB + DONNISH
write
DONNISH + NOUN
s
Definitions
adj
1
Characteristic of a university don.
The proctor was a gentlemanly, straight-forward looking man of about thirty, not at all donnish, and his address answered to his appearance.
The truth is, unless a man can get the prestige and income of a Don and write donnish books, it’s hardly worth while for him to make a Greek and Latin machine of himself and be able to spin you out pages of the Greek dramatists at any verse you’ll give him as a cue.
2
Bookish, theoretical and pedantic, as opposed to practical.
The new engineer had a donnish air, and found it difficult to communicate with the workers in the factory.
Thesaurus
Idioms & Phrases
Example Bank
301
The proctor was a gentlemanly, straight-forward looking man of about thirty, not at all donnish, and his address answered to his appearance.
Wiktionary02
The truth is, unless a man can get the prestige and income of a Don and write donnish books, it’s hardly worth while for him to make a Greek and Latin machine of himself and be able to spin you out pa
Wiktionary03
The savagery with which Michael Hofmann can wield a hatchet has earned him unlikely fans outside the literary circuit. A recent issue of Viz ran a cartoon of the critic, poet and translator urinating
WiktionaryUsage Notes
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