Definition

Imperious means to have an arrogant, commanding, or domineering attitude or manner, often expecting everyone to comply with one’s wishes.

Pronunciation

US English

UK English


See Synonyms, Antonyms and Usage

Excerpts from News Articles

1

Against the San Diego Aztecs, however, UConn will face a similarly imperious defense which was on full display in the Final Four, limiting FAU to just eight shots after halftime.

Logo 2023-04-03 CNN News

2

Having been threatened by their late son’s traumatised friend Jeeves (Denis Menochet), whom they have also taken in, Beau must make another of what will be a regular series of escapes. He finds himself in a Danteesque forest, where he is befriended by Penelope (Hayley Squires), who is part of a travelling woodland theatre troupe performing a revelatory play. Ultimately, Beau must come to terms with his mother, played with imperious force by Patti LuPone, as well as a figure from his past played by Parker Posey.

Logo 2023-04-11 The Guardian

3

During Snyder’s tenure, there’s been a parade of coaches and general managers, none of whom tasted any kind of sustained success. He was also reportedly imperious and insecure in the way he treated other personnel. Although reports of his mistreatment of employees are legion, this is about far more than reports that he prohibited people from making eye contact with him, successfully sued elderly longtime season ticket holders for not being able to make their payments, marked the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by selling 9/11 swag for profit and oversaw a stadium that’s ranked worst in the league and that we’ve literally seen falling apart.

Logo 2023-04-15 MSNBC News

4

Start of a trend. He always acted like the smartest guy in the room. Imperious is not a good way to be ever, but particularly before you’ve accomplished a single thing in your chosen business. Snyder chose football, stunk at running a team, but acted above it all at all times.

Logo 2023-04-17 MSNBC News

5

The day of my surgery, the plastic surgeon—a small and imperious man who often posed with his toy poodle on Instagram—drew lines across my chest in Sharpie, marking where he would cauterize my flesh and sew on fake nipples. He held one breast in his hand, made some markings on it, and let it flop down, then did the same for the other.

Logo 2023-04-03 Literary Hub

6

The production then moved to the Harvey Theater at New York’s Brooklyn Academy of Music for a sold-out, three-week run where it continued to garner raves, mostly for Blanchett’s performance. As noted earlier, in The New York Times Ben Brantley wrote, “The genteel belle, the imperious English teacher, the hungry sensualist, the manipulative flirt: no matter which of these aspects is in ascendancy, Ms. Blanchett keeps them all before us.

Logo 2023-04-07 Literary Hub

7

When differences of view emerge, as they are bound to do from time to time, they should be resolved privately and, whenever appropriate, collectively.” The impression given, subtly, was that Thatcher had grown too imperious and even slightly batty. It was an opinion more and more of her colleagues shared.

Logo 2023-04-04 The Independent

8

Stranded on a cold, deserted island, shipwreck survivors scraped seaweed off rocks to boil and eat. Some ate the dead. Crew members blamed their imperious captain for their fate and rigid naval order broke down. Mutineers abandoned their captain on the island after he fatally shot an unruly crew member in the head.

Logo 2023-04-17 Associated Press

9

It would take a brave man to pick a fight with Roy Keane, and nobody could quarrel with his view of Liverpool’s Scotland fullback Andy Robertson after a skirmish at Anfield. Robertson appeared to be feebly elbowed in the face as he approached linesman Constantine Hatzidakis at half time. The Scotland captain reacted in the traditional way, as if he had been waterboarded. Keane’s view was as ever imperious : ‘You know what he is that Robertson? I’ve watched him a number of times – he’s a big baby.’

Logo 2023-04-13 The Spectator

10

Having retrieved the showrunning reins from Bridgerton’s Chris Van Dusen, she is telling the backstory of the monarch loosely based on Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744-1818). The 17-year-old Charlotte arrived in the British court as a ridiculed outsider, yet she managed to sustain her eventful marriage to George III through 57 years, 15 children and his multiple bouts of mental illness, eventually emerging as the imperious diva of Bridgerton’s imaginings. “She was outsized, very glamorous, held herself above everyone,” says Rhimes of the character’s appeal.

Logo 2023-04-21 The Guardian

11

Humza Yousaf, elected by SNP members to replace Ms Sturgeon on March 27th, appears powerless to contain the chaos. Unlike his imperious predecessor, Mr Yousaf cuts a rather passive figure. So far he has acted more like a bemused narrator of the mess rather than the new broom who will clean it all up.

Logo 2023-04-20 The Economist

12

Jane Fonda’s telephone manner was nothing if not imperious . ‘This is Jane Fonda herself,’ she said one spring morning in 1982, in a transatlantic call from Hollywood to Cannes. The German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder was so tickled that for days afterwards he took to answering every phone call in English with: ‘This is Fassbinder himself.’

Logo 2023-04-25 The Spectator

13

But the star of the show has to be Roger Allam in a possibly career-best performance as Robert Maxwell, plummy-voiced, imperious and impossibly devious. Maxwell – at least in this, possibly embellished, version of events – thinks that his high-level political contacts (he has a direct line to Gorbachev) and the offer of a quid-pro-quo publishing deal involving the rights to one of his dodgy encyclopedias will be enough to win the deal from the benighted Soviets, in the manner of paying natives for gold with beads.

Logo 2023-04-26 The Spectator

14

His tendency to be “a little imperious , a little impatient” can make political negotiations harder, Perrineau said.

Logo 2023-05-01 CNN News

15

After finishing third in Azerbaijan, 21 seconds behind Verstappen, Leclerc told reporters that “Red Bull are in another league when it comes to the race.” Barring any dramatic performance upgrades from the chasing pack – or surprise events – Red Bull should be confident about continuing its imperious form.

Logo 2023-05-07 CNN News

16

When he eventually announced that he was running for president, in 2015, the outsider candidate wasn’t taken seriously by the political elite. But his name recognition and imperious “You’re fired!” style — largely tied to his reality TV work — gave him a huge advantage.

Logo 2023-05-10 NPR

17

Sunday's vote is one of the most consequential elections in the country's 100-year history, a contest that could end Erdogan's imperious 20-year rule and reverberate well beyond Turkey's borders.

Logo 2023-05-14 CNBC