ostentatiously abounding in excessive moralizing; self-righteous
► uses
Uses:
[...] Lieutenant Scheisskopf's wife [...] who henpecked Yossarian sententiously for being cynical and callous about Thanksgiving, even though she didn't believe in God just as much as he didn't.
Joseph Heller. Catch-22, p.178 (1961)
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"Well, Mr. Jellyband," said Mr. Hempseed, sententiously, "you know what the Scriptures say: 'Let 'im 'oo stands take 'eed lest 'e fall.'"
Baroness Emmuska Orczy. The Scarlet Pimpernel
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‘Thoughtcrime is a dreadful thing, old man,’ he said sententiously. ‘It’s insidious. It can get hold of you without your even knowing it.
George Orwell. 1984 (1949)
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Then once more, ten days later, after some passage of arms with one of her daughters, she had remarked sententiously. "We have had enough of mistakes. I shall be more careful in future!"
Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Idiot (1887)
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‘There are many things to be considered before that question can be answered properly,’ I said, sententiously.
Emily Brontë. Wuthering Heights (1847)
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Mr. Ludsbury emitted a single chuckle from deep in his throat, then his face turned brick red momentarily and he assumed his customary sententiousness.
John Knowles. A Separate Peace, p.150 (1959)
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by purposely falling upon the object, in a flour-sack, out of the first-floor window,—summoned a sententious Enchanter;
Charles Dickens. Great Expectations (1861)
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“There was many a good man went to the penny-a-week school with a sod of turf under his oxter,” said Mr Kernan sententiously. “The old system was the best: plain honest education. None of your modern trumpery....”
James Joyce. Dubliners
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“That sounds a dangerous maxim, sir; because one can see at once that it is liable to abuse.”
“Sententious sage! so it is: but I swear by my household gods not to abuse it.”