sumptuary

adjective

sump·​tu·​ary ˈsəm(p)-chə-ˌwer-ē 

1

: relating to personal expenditures and especially to prevent extravagance and luxury

… conservative sumptuary tastes …

—John Cheever

2

: designed to regulate extravagant expenditures or habits especially on moral or religious grounds

sumptuary laws

sumptuary tax

Examples of sumptuary in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Many places had sumptuary laws, which regulated consumption. — Literary Hub, 25 Mar. 2026

During the Middle Ages, sumptuary laws prevented the lower class from wearing silk. — Kian Bakhtiari, Forbes.com, 20 Jan. 2026

Medieval sumptuary laws dictated who could wear what—velvet for nobles, pearls for the pious, gold for the crown. — Lilah Ramzi, Vogue, 4 Dec. 2025

Gradually, my life became sumptuary and monastic, but this was more or less a survival tactic, since my own bouts of addiction had, throughout my twenties, left me with a contrail of two suicide attempts. — Barrett Swanson, Harper's Magazine, 2 Jan. 2025

Others looked to curtail the social disruption caused by radically new fashions; preambles to sumptuary laws often refer to the loss of traditional virtues. — Ana María Velasco, National Geographic, 17 Jan. 2024

To protect the social order, sumptuary laws were passed that discouraged commoners from dressing above their class. — Nick Haramis, New York Times, 6 Sep. 2023

English parliaments had a habit of passing sumptuary laws on luxury clothing under one monarch and repealing them under another, Blackstone went on to explain. — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 8 July 2022

Daston relates in comic detail how sumptuary rules in France failed to be followed time and again. — Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 6 July 2022

Word History

Etymology

Latin sumptuarius, from sumptus expense, from sumere to take, spend — more at consume

First Known Use

1600, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for sumptuary

• askari
• astbury
• azeri
• banbury
• barberry
• blackberry
• blueberry
• canary
• cranberry
• dentary
• dewberry
• dogberry