As in the sixties, being young then was in itself an empowerment; writing under Harding and Coolidge was impudent fun. John Updike, New Yorker, 25 Apr. 1988Or it was he who was bruiting it about, with his princely dark head thrown back in impudent laughter, that he was going to be king. Joseph Heller, God Knows, 1984When I refused to be the child they knew and accepted me to be, I was called impudent and my muteness sullenness. Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969 The boy was punished for his impudent behavior. the guest's impudent inquiries about the cost of just about everything we had in the house
Recent Examples on the WebThat sort of press—the impudent, intrusive, populist variety—serves as a reminder of the British monarchy’s twenty-first-century castration. Clare Malone, The New Yorker, 13 Sep. 2022 Everyone in the ground expected both to fade, especially the impudent little outsider. Roger Robinson, Outside Online, 10 Apr. 2022 In August, 2020, Putin’s security services used the nerve agent Novichok to poison Alexey Navalny, the regime’s most prominent and impudent opponent. David Remnick, The New Yorker, 23 Jan. 2022 Yeah, those vents beneath the front headrests gently waft warm air to protect your vulnerable nape from the impudent tinge of an autumn morning. Ezra Dyer, Car and Driver, 20 July 2021 Scars are there, but the city is impudent and noisy.NBC News, 26 May 2021 The artist Cameron Rowland read from a letter written by a South Carolina planter, detailing disobedience on his plantation—a litany of impudent acts that the planter seemed not to realize constituted a campaign of sly subversion. Alexis Okeowo, The New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2020 The films, based on Ian Fleming’s novels, focused on a British spook who was impudent and resourceful, a wizard with women and weaponry, and impeccably dressed but capable of back-alley brutishness. Adam Bernstein, BostonGlobe.com, 7 Apr. 2020 Belafonte and Altman, working before the era of wokeness and politically correct orthodoxy, had the impudent genius to be provocative. Armond White, National Review, 11 Mar. 2020 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English, from Latin impudent-, impudens, from in- + pudent-, pudens, present participle of pudēre to feel shame