lardy-dardy
Adjective (informal, dated): - Affectedly elegant or stylish: "lardy-dardy" describes a person or behavior that is excessively refined, showy, or pretentious in manner or appearance, often with a connotation of artificiality.
- (He behaved in an exaggeratedly elegant and pretentious way.)
- (Her affected and showy way of speaking irritated the plain-spoken listeners.)
"to put on lardy-dardy airs": to pretend to be more refined or important than one actually is.
- Don't put on lardy-dardy airs just because you visited the city once. (Do not act pretentiously or affectedly.)
"a lardy-dardy fellow": a man who is overly concerned with his appearance and manners, often seen as effeminate or foppish.
- The villagers laughed at the lardy-dardy fellow in his silk waistcoat. (They mocked the man who was excessively and showily dressed.)
Lardy-dardyism (n): the quality or behavior of being lardy-dardy.
- His lardy-dardyism was out of place at the rustic picnic. (His pretentious elegance was inappropriate for the simple outdoor meal.)
Dandy (adj/n): a man who pays excessive attention to his appearance; similar to but broader than lardy-dardy.
- He was a dandy, always in the latest fashion. (He was a fashion-obsessed man.)
- Foppish: excessively concerned with one's clothes and appearance.
- Pretentious: attempting to impress by affecting greater importance or talent than is actually possessed.
- Affected: artificial, showy, or exaggerated in manner.
- Dandified: resembling a dandy; overly elegant.
All dressed up with nowhere to go: wearing fancy clothes but having no occasion for them, often implying pretentiousness.
- He was all dressed up with nowhere to go, looking lardy-dardy in his top hat. (He was overdressed and affected.)
Putting on the dog: behaving in an ostentatiously elegant or showy manner.
- They were putting on the dog with their lardy-dardy dinner party. (They were being pretentiously fancy.)