having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy
<adj.all> some economists are disdainful of their colleagues in other social disciplines haughty aristocrats his lordly manners were offensive walked with a prideful swagger very sniffy about breaches of etiquette his mother eyed my clothes with a supercilious air a more swaggering mood than usual
expressive of contempt
<adj.all> curled his lip in a supercilious smile spoke in a sneering jeering manner makes many a sharp comparison but never a mean or snide one
Supercilious \Su`per*cil"i*ous\, a. [L. superciliosus, fr. supercilium an eyebrow, pride; super over, + cilium an eyelid; probably akin to celare to conceal. Cf. {Conceal}.] Lofty with pride; haughty; dictatorial; overbearing; arrogant; as, a supercilious officer; asupercilious air; supercilious behavior. -- {Su`per*cil"i*ous*ly}, adv. -- {Su`per*cil"i*ous*ness}, n.
Your supercilious reference to the magic moment when life begins is uncalled for.
The BBC used to be very supercilious about running comedies in tandem; it was considered rampant commercialism and unimaginative.
The leader of the official opposition was at his most jocose, moral, supercilious, etc, when he spoke on Wednesday.
Given its popularity and high production standards, it would be supercilious, and in some cases inaccurate, to dismiss the entire genre as middlebrow soap opera.
Still, the very British narrator has trouble concealing a note of supercilious distaste for these Air Force veterans who calmly swallow dinner and talk quietly among themselves and who clearly are, in the narrator's view, insufficiently guilt-ridden.