adjective
Arrogant and domineering.
- ‘With no fear of losing, lawmakers become more arrogant and imperious, less open to compromise.’
- ‘Yet this apparent stonewalling has exasperated the Hong Kong press, which portrays her as imperious and arrogant.’
- ‘A highly regarded consultant and teaching doctor, I found her manner imperious and domineering.’
- ‘Their humble attire did little to detract from the air of imperious authority they exuded, however.’
- ‘He was once again imperious in a Scotland pack which dominated the home forwards for lengthy spells of an otherwise one-sided match.’
- ‘The awkward driving position feels lofty and imperious.’
- ‘It's notoriously easy to hit the wrong tone and come off sharp, imperious or brusque in e-mail when you don't intend to.’
- ‘Could it be that she is a tad on the imperious side?’
- ‘They exude a true gothic sense of imperious detachment.’
- ‘I wasn't a distant or imperious art director - I was right in there with them all the time.’
- ‘From a trompe l'oeil window on one side of the Palazzotto, a frescoed woman looks down, faintly mocking, faintly imperious.’
- ‘As a result he, too, was back to something like his imperious best.’
- ‘Although the news did not force its way on to the Evening Press front page, the imperious prose inside captured the significance of the moment.’
- ‘It's true that she had a pretty imperious manner, but Granny never believed that one human being could be set above another by an accident of birth.’
- ‘Both these batsmen look imperious when they are playing the outgoing ball, since they cut and square drive really well.’
- ‘It's safe to say her imperious streak has been running on high here lately.’
- ‘Her playing conjured up the tremulous voice and imperious manner without quite replacing it.’
- ‘His imperious bulk, even his accent, counted against him and when he was found to have fiddled the books he appeared to be beyond redemption.’
- ‘A man who controls 100 people with a single imperious gesture is visibly demonstrating what power really means.’
- ‘Its ceremonial gateway towers over the city below, grand and imperious.’
peremptory, high-handed, commanding, imperial, overbearing, overweening, domineering, authoritarian, dictatorial, authoritative, lordly, officious, assertive, dominating, bullish, forceful, bossy, arrogant
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Origin
Mid 16th century from Latin imperiosus, from imperium ‘command, authority, empire’; related to imperare ‘to command’. Compare with imperial.