• lion in the path, lion in the way
• bumptious, cocky, conceited, confident, high and mighty, overweening, self-confident, self-important, smarty, snooty, stuck-up, swollen-headed, to think too much of oneself, vainglorious
• confidently, overweeningly
• conceit, egotism, self-confidence, self-importance, vainglory
• to get ideas into one's head
• to conceit, to inflate, to set up
• little tin god, tin god