The phrase "a smart arse" is correct and usable in written English.
It is typically used in informal contexts to describe someone who is being sarcastic or overly clever in a way that can be annoying to others.
Example: "I appreciate your input, but please don't be a smart arse about it."
Alternatives: "a wise guy" or "a smart aleck".
"Niki, let me ask you something, since you are such a smart arse and all.
He was a know it all, but he wasn't a smart arse, Ray says.
He added: "Don't go buying me John Lewis vouchers for Christmas, trying to be a smart arse, inside a card that says 'Noel'".
Develop a bedside manner for your ward/hospital colleagues as well as with your patients – no-one likes a smart arse, medical degree or no medical degree.
He had already released a string of singles on tiny independents, but this one had major-label muscle behind it: where once Blake's singles shared space on the release schedules with Claptrap by Joe, Blimey by Ramadanman and Untold's No One Likes a Smart Arse, now he found himself the labelmate of Welsh MOR songbird Duffy.
When I first got pregnant, I was a smart-arse corporate lawyer, used to getting my own way.
Wladimir dismisses Haye as a "smart-arse", adding: "He has promoted himself smartly but we need to see some action from him".
We are here for a such short space of time, so to be a smart-arse is a sin and such a waste of time".
"She was a bit of a smart-arse, to be honest," says Read. "She got teased quite a lot before she lost her accent, but she relished it – it was always obvious she likes a debate.
You see, a chulo is someone with cocky arrogance, a smart-arse with a big mouth but bags of personality - characteristics that supposedly define Madrileños but, in their confused bundle, sum up Real Sociedad midfielder Karpin even better.
I raise it not to be a smart-arse but because depression has become the de facto face of disability in the discussions the public domain will allow about the claimants of disability benefits.
