Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pertaining to a dandy or an aristocrat, esp. used of those who are putting on airs.

1852		Argus (Melbourne) 5 Aug. 4/3: A certain ‘haw-haw’ pomposity of manner, which is assumed to cover actual mediocrily, is quite sufficient.
1862		Thackeray Adventures of Philip (1899) 279: Young one is a gentleman – passionate fellow, hawhaw fellow, but kind to the poor.
1869		Maitland Mercury (NSW) 1 June 3/1: [H]e was a stranger, with a superfluity of jewellery, and a ‘haw haw’" style.
1872		Sportsman (London) ‘Notes on News’ 23 Mar 4/1: The popular conception of the Foreign Office clerk is that he is a ‘haw-haw’ sort of fellow .
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Apr. 4/2: They talked audibly in the ‘haw-haw’ style [...] ‘Yaas, by Jove, Cain, I do, in wather different style, though’.
1889		Dly Gaz. for Middlesborough 18 Mar. n.p.: A very haw-haw sort of fellow.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 22 Apr. 3/2: The hawhaw pretensions of the of the Stuffed Dummy who does duty as the representative of Her Majesty.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Jan. 5/3: Because a haw-haw fashion-plate exquisite happens to be Commissioner of Police is not to say that he shouldn’t be amenable to the law like other people.
1924		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 18 Jan. [synd. col.] Lawrence D’Orsay in real life is a typical haw-haw Englishman. He has the drawl, the over-Niagara moustache [etc.].
1939		J. Barrington in Dly Exp. 4 Sept. 115: ‘He speaks English of the haw-haw, damit-get-out-of-my-way variety, and his strong suit is gentlemanly indignation’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 208: A haw-haw swell descended.