The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hoity-toity \Hoi"ty-toi`ty\, a. [From Hoit.] Thoughtless; giddy; flighty; also, haughty; patronizing; as, to be in hoity-toity spirits, or to assume hoity-toity airs; used also as an exclamation, denoting surprise or disapprobation, with some degree of contempt.
Hoity-toity! What have I to do with dreams?
--Congreve.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
also hoity toity, 1660s, "riotous behavior," from earlier highty tighty "frolicsome, flighty," perhaps an alteration and reduplication of dialectal hoyting "acting the hoyden, romping" (1590s), see hoyden. Sense of "haughty" first recorded late 1800s, probably on similarity of sound.
Wiktionary
a. pompous, self-important and snobbish.
WordNet
adj. affectedly genteel [syn: grandiose, hifalutin, highfalutin, highfaluting, la-di-da]
Usage examples of "hoity-toity".
Hisser won not-guilty-by-reason-of-entertaining-legal-defense verdicts for the most savage, unremorseful, bloody-minded, and ill-dressed murderers of its time, winning kudos, plaudits, accolades, and prize Cadi1lacs from the wards committee of the hoity-toity American Bar Association.