(especially of language or ideas) extravagant and grand-sounding.
‘he had other more high-flown artistic notions in mind’
‘his novels seem high-flown and absurd’
‘The language they used was high-flown - some would say overblown.’
‘It is tempting under the current circumstances to rush down from our high ground and have a right old go at the BBC - perhaps using rather high-flown and intemperate language.’
‘Viewed in this light, his high-flown rhetoric about the timeless values of freedom and democracy can seem an abstraction fit only for university debating halls.’
‘Whatever high-flown rhetoric comes from the president next week, the reality is clear-cut.’
‘Setting aside the high-flown rhetoric of the age, the issues raised are with us still.’
‘Plans for a merger between Amicus and the TGWU, and possibly the GMB trade unions were announced recently with some high-flown oratory from Tony Woodley, the TGWU general secretary.’
‘It contains 823 pages of learned, high-flown, flowery reflections on the glorious if doomed role of the poet in a nasty world, with a high incidence of exclamation marks.’
‘Unlike Kurtz, he sees civilization in practical terms rather than through high-flown rhetoric.’
‘However, journalism did not change overnight and it still indulged in the Soviet practice of wordiness and high-flown rhetoric.’
‘And these values are made tangible through people, for people are the heart of a successful institution - not buildings, not high-flown mission statements or even traditions.’
‘The cultural supplements of Germany's newspapers, always fond of high-flown debates, will have their work cut out for them this summer.’
‘His biography is eminently sensible on a subject about which much high-flown transcendental nonsense has been written.’
‘Anyone who has read the Bronte Sisters knows the kind of high-flown passion the Victorians held dear.’
‘His pungent rejoinders made short work of the Government's high-flown theories.’
‘In contrast to many postmodernists, who engage in easy forms of parody when addressing the high-flown art of the past, Schütte has actually had the courage to work from inside the tradition - and risk the comparisons.’
‘She knew that people didn't respond to films for either high-flown aesthetic reasons or ‘moral’ ones, and she waged endless war on critics who claimed they did.’
‘The only Shakespeare play written entirely in verse, it contrasts the high-flown ideals of Richard with the low cunning of Henry Bolingbroke, the man who overthrows him and later has him murdered.’
‘In terms of British theatrical history it represents the last great fling of the high-flown late Victorian tradition most readily associated with Sir Henry Irving.’
‘Working people should not allow themselves to be deceived by the high-flown speeches, glossy brochures and fireworks displays.’
‘It was not the last time the high-flown menu prose promised one thing while the actual dish delivered another.’