Green’s Dictionary of Slang

smart, pretentious.

1951		‘John Ross MacDonald’ Moving Target 151: You’re getting awful fancy-pants since he took you off the street.
1952		K.C. Lamott Stockade 48: The army’s getting fancy-pants these days.
1962		S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 76: I’ve never been to a fancy-pants party like this.
1968		(con. c.1900) J. Thompson King Blood (1989) 94: That fancy-pants dude had gotten to Little Sis first.
1981		C. Hope Separate Development 91: This girl, sorry, woman, fancy-pants woman, I should have said.
1998		(con. 1960s) G. Washington Blood Brothers 13: Fight you bastard, fight! I said to myself, don’t let some fancy pants diplomat take your girl away from you.
2000		Guardian Rev. 27 May 12: When ah’m wi’ mates in sum fancy pants west end restaurant eating foie gras.
2002		R. Haddock Arkalalah 50: Well, Sheriff, [...] maybe you can teach this fancy-pants lawyer a thing on two about real detective work.
2011		Village Voice 26 Sept. 🌐 The asking price has taken a dive from $18 million to $14,995,000. For mere mortals that’s obviously way too fancypants.
2018		G. Gilmore Class Act [ebook] ‘He’s probably at some fancy-pants party’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 177: [T]hey held no end of fancypants ideas about redistribution of wealth (better known as theft) and land reform (bka theft).
2024		D. Swierczynski California Bear 57: ‘Some fancy-pants documentary chick just signed a deal to write and direct a streaming series about the California Bear’.