conspicuous consumption

noun

: lavish or wasteful spending thought to enhance social prestige

Examples of conspicuous consumption in a Sentence

a culture of conspicuous consumption

Recent Examples on the Web

Hung’s private artists work in a culture of conspicuous consumption, challenging their judgmental diners who follow high, strict standards of excellence. —Armond White, National Review, 9 Feb. 2024

On a street lined with high-end stores like Chanel and Canada Goose stood a young woman handing out free coffee to lure people into a storefront that has nothing — or maybe everything — to do with conspicuous consumption. —Helene Stapinski, New York Times, 29 Dec. 2023

On one hand, some people condemned its commodification of luxury and emphasis on conspicuous consumption, while others called out its failure to meaningfully protest luxury’s exclusionary practices. —Shelcy Joseph, Essence, 18 Jan. 2024

Nothing pairs better with mass conspicuous consumption quite like pop culture nostalgia bait. —Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 1 Nov. 2023

In Italy, mortadella’s prestige peaked during the Renaissance, when ingredients like peppercorns from East Asia and pistachios from the Mediterranean were fabulously expensive, and artful food became a medium of conspicuous consumption for families like the Medici and the Borgias. —Julia Moskin, New York Times, 28 Nov. 2023

But Barbie symbolizes something more: conspicuous consumption. —Michelle Singletary, Washington Post, 19 July 2023

Browne has turned it into a badge of conspicuous consumption. —Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 18 Sep. 2023

To become Edna, Humphries would put on a mauve wig, an increasingly rococo pair of eyeglasses and a glittering gown that screeched conspicuous consumption. —Ben Brantley, New York Times, 24 Apr. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1899, in the meaning defined above