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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
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor, 12 June 2025
In September 2024, a Texas woman was robbed at gunpoint, pistol-whipped and tied up in her Dallas-area home located in the ritzy neighborhood of Bluffview, where the average home value is $880,000, according to Zillow.
—Adam Sabes, FOXNews.com, 13 May 2025
The opening takes us back to 1968, where a young Iris Campbell (Brec Bassinger) has a sudden vision in which the Skyview, a high-rise tower with a ritzy restaurant at the top, collapses.
—Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 22 May 2025
When Ordinary Love begins, Emily seems to have the perfect life: a ritzy townhouse on the Upper East Side, two beautiful children, and a wealthy hedge fund husband.
—Shannon Carlin, Time, 22 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for ritzy
Cite this Entry
“Ritzy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ritzy. Accessed 1 Jul. 2025.
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