Definition of "high-flown" []

• Exceedingly lofty or exalted: high-flown ideas about the history of Christianity. (adjective)
• Highly pretentious or inflated: high-flown rhetoric. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "He collects antique Samurai swords, has owned a pet cobra and speaks with a high-flown Massachusetts Brahmin accent."
• "The day after President Obama's big yearly speech to Congress and the American people, most pundits and talking-head types in the media are vying to outdo each other on stating "what it all means" or similar high-flown overanalysis."
• "You sense that he doesn't relish conversation about high-flown topics such as the role of the artist in society—maybe because he now shuns the obvious rhetorical gesture in his speech just as he does in his art."