foppishness

Even in the first book it becomes clear that Wimsey's apparent foppishness is largely an act to disarm others (and, to some extent, tame himself).

Whose Body? Dorothy Leigh 1923

His foppishness was the foppishness of his youth, and to the last he wandered through Paris clad in the splendour of the days when young men were "lions," and when the quarrel between classicism and romanticism was vital.

The Wits and Beaux of Society Volume 1 Philip Wharton 1847

Emerson's lip curled at the sight of this "foppishness"; he refused to wear a hat and usually went about with his sleeves rolled to the elbows and his shirt collar open.

The Mummy Case Peters, Elizabeth 1985

He was clad in what, though it was not distinctly a seaman's habit, yet suggested the ways of the sea, and there was a kind of foppishness about his rig which set me wondering, for I was used to a slovenly squalor or a slovenly bravery in the sailors I knew most of.

Marjorie 1898

As Rodrigo Borgia he is comical in his self-regard and foppishness, ordering villages to be stripped of chattals or his enemies slayed before sinking back weakly into his papal throne, fingering the edges of his golden crown mumbling that God is verily moving within him.

The Borgias: Grace Dent's TV OD 2011

Lets stop this foppishness, recognize the scale of the problem at hand, and realize its JUST A COMIC.

So there. 2010

This play displays little of the fruity malice or camp of that genre, even if Mark Gatiss' absurd turkey cock of a Captain Brazen has the boo-hiss foppishness of a pantomime villain.

The Recruiting Officer - review 2012

The foppishness of aspects of the Roy Evans era came out in their tendency towards the floppy-on-top public school 'do.

Five things we learned from the Premier League this weekend Barney Ronay 2010

“Youth and comeliness were gone, but the foppishness remained, and the red-faced man, with false teeth and the voice of a worn-out actor had his scanty grey hair curled.”

Louisa May Alcott Susan Cheever 2010

Besides that, I'm given to foppishness and dandyism and always feel like I'm showing off when I dress up.

Archive 2008-03-01 2008