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César Ritz (1850-1918) earned worldwide renown for the luxurious hotels bearing his name in London and Paris. (The Ritz-Carlton hotel company is a contemporary descendant of these enterprises.) Although they were by no means the first to cater to high-end clients, Ritz’s hotels quickly earned reputations as symbols of opulence. F. Scott Fitzgerald, a writer who often focused on the fashionably wealthy, titled one of his short stories “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz,” and the phrase “to put on the ritz” means “to indulge in ostentatious display.” The adjective ritzy, describing either something fancy or stylish, or the haughty attitudes of the wealthy elite, first checked into the English language in 1919.
Examples of ritzy in a Sentence
Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 16 Apr. 2026
Answers include the $78 poulet rôti with foie gras jus, pommes Fifi, and salade verte at Chez Fifi, a ritzy brasserie in an Upper East Side townhouse.
—Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner, Bon Appetit Magazine, 14 Apr. 2026
The problem Manna hopes to solve isn’t ritzy, but the math and market are.
—Lily Mae Lazarus, Fortune, 9 Apr. 2026
Set the scene The latest ultra-luxury hotel chain to land in Greece, and the newest milestone in the ritzy revival of the Athenian Riviera.
—Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 5 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for ritzy
Cite this Entry
“Ritzy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ritzy. Accessed 24 Apr. 2026.
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