English · Idiom Attested

too clever by half

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Annoyingly proud.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Tự tin một cách khó chịu

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The arithmetic can not be faulted — and may well be judged too clever by half.

‘ That man is too clever by half,’ Paula commented.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Euphemism (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).

Common questions

What does “too clever by half” mean?

Annoyingly proud.

Is “too clever by half” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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