One of your friends is complaining
about a girl that you both know. He doesn't like her. You didn't like her when
you first met her, but now you do. You say this. "She can come across as stuck up at first."
The way that you "come
across" to people is how they see you and think about you. This phrase is
a way to explain what people think of you, which can be different from how you
think of yourself. So although you may think of yourself as cool and
sophisticated, you might come across as unfriendly instead.
You can follow "come across
as" with a noun phrase that describes a person:
He came across as a really friendly and sweet guy at first.
Or you can follow it with an
adjective phrase that describes someone's personality, like in the example
above. Here's another example:
Do you think I come across to people as kind of boring?
But it sounds strange to just have a
single-word adjective after "come across as", like "come across
as boring" or "come across as needy".
(someone) is stuck up
A "stuck up" person is
someone who:
- thinks that they are better than other people
- thinks that other people are less important than
them
- dislikes people who are poorer, less popular, or less powerful than themselves
Here are some example sentences:
I can't stand her. She acts like a
stuck up little princess.
I guess I should go out drinking
with them sometime. I don't want to be seen as rude or stuck up, you know?