proud
 proud (proud)adj. proud·er, proud·est
1. Feeling pleasurable satisfaction over an act, possession, quality, or relationship by which one measures one's stature or self-worth:
proud of one's child; proud to serve one's country.
2. Occasioning or being a reason for pride: “On January 1, 1900, Americans and Europeans greeted the twentieth century in the proud and certain belief that the next hundred years would make all things possible” (W. Bruce Lincoln).
3. Feeling or showing justifiable self-respect.
4. Filled with or showing excessive self-esteem.
5. Of great dignity; honored:
a proud name.
6. Majestic; magnificent:
proud alpine peaks.
7. Spirited. Used of an animal:
proud steeds. [Middle English, from Old English prūd, from Old French prou, prud, brave, virtuous, oblique case of prouz, from Vulgar Latin *prōdis, from Late Latin prōde, advantageous, from Latin prōdesse, to be good : prōd-, for (variant of prō-, with d on the model of red-, prevocalic variant of re-, back, again. See pro-1) + esse, to be; See es- in Indo-European Roots.] proudʹly adv.proudʹness n.
Synonyms: proud, arrogant, haughty, disdainful, supercilious
These adjectives mean characterized by an inflated ego and disdain for what one considers inferior: Proud can suggest justifiable self-satisfaction but often implies conceit: “There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight” (Woodrow Wilson). One who is arrogant is overbearingly proud and demands excessive power or consideration: an arrogant and pompous professor, unpopular with students and colleagues alike. Haughty suggests proud superiority, as by reason of high status: “Her laugh was satirical, and so was the habitual expression of her arched and haughty lip” (Charlotte Brontë). Disdainful emphasizes scorn or contempt: “Nor [let] grandeur hear with a disdainful smile,/The short and simple annals of the poor” (Thomas Gray). Supercilious implies haughty disdain and aloofness: “His mother eyed me in silence with a supercilious air” (Tobias Smollett).
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