Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
stand upon one's dignity en · VERB
Meanings
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(dated) To have or affect a high notion of one's own rank, privilege, or character.
"By Gar! you've got an Irish tongue in your head anyhow," cried the saloon-keeper, not quite certain whether to humour this audacious visitor or to stand upon his dignity.
1915, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Valley of Fear, Part 2 Chapter 2:They did not stand upon their dignity, nor give their minds to being or to seeming as elegant and as fine as anybody else.
1881, Richard Grant White, “Habits of English Life”, in The Atlantic Monthyl:
Forms