: a person who possesses or has pretensions to superior learning or culture.

Where did the word highbrow come from?

The terms 'highbrow' and 'lowbrow' come from phrenology, the nineteenth-century science of regarding the shape of the skull as a key to intelligence. A 'high' forehead meant intelligence; a 'low' one meant stupidity.

How do you use highbrow in a sentence?

1 He presents his own highbrow literary programme. 2 It's better for you to highbrow her, but you have to read these two books beforehand. 3 Highbrow critics sniff that the programme was "too sophisticated" to appeal to most viewers. 4 The usual metropolitan and highbrow bias can be discerned.