Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Righteousness accompanied by an unwarranted attitude of moral or social superiority; smug or hypocritical righteousness.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Piety; devoutness; scrupulous austerity; sanctity.
- noun The external appearance of devoutness; labored show of goodness; affected or hypocritical devoutness.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Holiness; devoutness; scrupulous austerity; sanctity; especially, outward or artificial saintliness; assumed or pretended holiness; hypocritical devoutness.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
hypocritical form of excessivepiety , considered to be an affectation merely for public show.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the quality of being hypocritically devout
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But with any luck, it will be a eye-feast of hundreds of thousands of good-humored, well-behaved Americans, there to answer the cynicism of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, at which the notion that the election of a black president somehow sullied the nation's dignity was dressed in sanctimony and a display of patriotism so bombastic that it was almost camp.
Adele Stan: 4 Reasons Why Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity Is Great for Progressives Adele Stan 2010
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But with any luck, it will be a eye-feast of hundreds of thousands of good-humored, well-behaved Americans, there to answer the cynicism of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, at which the notion that the election of a black president somehow sullied the nation's dignity was dressed in sanctimony and a display of patriotism so bombastic that it was almost camp.
Adele Stan: 4 Reasons Why Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity Is Great for Progressives Adele Stan 2010
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But with any luck, it will be a eye-feast of hundreds of thousands of good-humored, well-behaved Americans, there to answer the cynicism of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, at which the notion that the election of a black president somehow sullied the nation's dignity was dressed in sanctimony and a display of patriotism so bombastic that it was almost camp.
Adele Stan: 4 Reasons Why Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity Is Great for Progressives Adele Stan 2010
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Question: Is there any chance — any chance — the Times would not release the tape and publish front-page story after story about the gory details, with the usual accompanying chorus of sanctimony from the oped commentariat?
Archive 2008-10-01 Not a sheep 2008
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Smug sanctimony is an interesting disease as those infected usually believe they speak for everyone else and are objective observers.
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The poll does ask some loaded questions, but I believe an alarming level of sanctimony is implicit in those answers (Is the US more divided by class than Europe, I think not … are our racial tensions more acute, not even close).
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Both the book itself and its reception (as recorded on Amazon. com) expose the sort of pleasure it promotes: that of solidarity in sanctimony.
Archive 2007-10-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2007
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Both the book itself and its reception (as recorded on Amazon. com) expose the sort of pleasure it promotes: that of solidarity in sanctimony.
The censures of the carping world Matthew Guerrieri 2007
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Behind the sanctimony is a cliché: McDonald's medicine.
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Behind the sanctimony is a cliché: McDonald's medicine.
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