smarty-pants

[ smahr-tee-pants ]

noun

, (used with a singular verb)

1. smart aleck:

   He's just a smarty-pants, showing off for some girls.

2. a smart person:

   My kid is a super smarty-pants who continues to get 4s on her state exams.

3. (used as a mildly abusive term of address or to refer to someone with contempt):

   Who invited that smarty-pants--everyone hates her!

smarty-pants

/ ˈsmɑːtɪˌbuːts; ˈsmɑːtɪˌpænts /

noun

1. informal.
   functioning as singular a would-be clever person

Word History and Origins

Origin of smarty-pants¹

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

Trump makes them feel they can stick it to those smarty-pants liberals who they imagine are laughing at them, and all without having to put in the work of learning stuff and knowing things.

From Salon

I folded my hands together on top of my desk and nodded toward my bedroom door, hoping Miss Smarty-Pants could take a hint.

From Literature

Those smarty-pants Yippies understood that.

From Salon

Anger — fueled by the cruelty of politics, by the indignities of capitalism, by Costello’s somewhat creepy ideas about women — was no impediment to productivity as punk’s smarty-pants polemicist banged out the nearly five dozen songs found on his first four studio albums.

From Los Angeles Times

A bunch of law school graduates, smarty-pants and East Coast elites.

From Washington Post