smarty-pantsadj.n.
/ˈsmɑːtɪpants/, U.S. /ˈsmɑrdiˌpæn(t)s/ colloquial (originally U.S.).
A. adj.
Overly or obnoxiously clever. Also: designating or characteristic of a ‘smarty-pants’ (see sense B.).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > sharpness, shrewdness, insight > would-be clever person > [adjective]
smarty1850
smart alec1877
clever-clever1896
wise guy1920
slick1921
smarty-pants1932
wisenheimer1937
smart-ass1951
smart-assed1957
smart-arsed1962
smarty-boots1962
smart-arse1965
wise-assed1967
wise-ass1971
1932 Commonweal 2 Mar. 502/2 It is strangely out of place in what our college girls might justly dub this ‘smarty-pants’ book.
1938 Mansfield (Ohio) News Jrnl. 1 Nov. 4/6 The Smarty Pants breed is peculiar to the 20th Century.
1969 Punch 26 Mar. 465/3 Cage Me a Leacock..owed everything—though not, I hope, the smarty-pants title—to Braden's enormous enthusiasm for his subject.
1981 Times Lit. Suppl. 13 Feb. 158/3 The smarty-pants youthfulness is very period.
2006 G. Malkani Londonstani xii. 138 It was an arranged shaadi so you had loads a smarty-pants comments bout dinosaur bones and fossils an shit.
B. n.
An overly or obnoxiously clever person, a ‘know-it-all’, a ‘smart alec’. Also as a disparaging form of address; cf. smarty n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > sharpness, shrewdness, insight > would-be clever person > [noun]
clever-boots1847
smarty1847
smart alec1864
clever-clogs1866
clever-sides1886
clever Dick1895
wise guy1896
wisenheimer1904
smarty-pants1935
quiz kid1940
smart apple1940
smarty-boots1950
smart-ass1958
slick1959
clever-sticks1964
smart-arse1965
wise-ass1971
1935 E. H. Heth Some we Loved i. iii. 112 Why, you smarty-pants, so you know it, do you?
1938 Mansfield (Ohio) News Jrnl. 1 Nov. 4/6 The Smarty Pants is not happily content with crabbing the spotlight for himself—he must kick someone else in the shin while so doing.
1953 M. Dickens No More Meadows vi. 266 [American speaker] He jumped right in with his slick talk... That smarty pants.
1967 N. Marsh Death at Dolphin viii. 199 Hawkins, Mr. Smartypants, has a little chat.
2004 Parents Jan. 131/1 Your little smarty-pants had something to say about it [sc. picking up his toys]: ‘Why should I? I'm going to play with them after dinner anyway.’
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1932