Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The acquisition and display of expensive items to attract attention to one's wealth or to suggest that one is wealthy.
Wiktionary
- n. A public display of acquisition of possessions with the intention of gaining social prestige; excessive consumerism in order to flaunt one's purchasing power.
WordNet 3.0
- n. buying expensive services and products in order to flaunt your wealth
Etymologies
- Coined by Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) in 1899. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Was it perhaps symbolic that the only one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world which served a useful purpose and was not an instance of conspicuous consumption was the Pharos at Alex - andria?”
“And this is the China Room," a tour guide was saying to a group of tourists, "home of Nancy Reagan's $952 per setting red-rimmed china that sparked a debate over conspicuous consumption back in 1981.”
“Confronted by such considerations, it seems to me that there is little truth left in Prof.Dr. Veblen's theory of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous waste - that what remains of it, after it is practically applied a few times, is no more than a wraith of balderdash.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘conspicuous consumption’.
-
You-Know-What
prepositional rea..., academic performance, asymmetric warfare, cultural pluralism, cluster marketing, stealth marketing, literary language, data mining, operant conditioning, simultaneous inte..., consecutive inter..., liaison interpreting and 137 more...
-
seven syllables
transdifferentiation, parthenogenetically, monocotyledonous, sesquicentennial, quasiperiodically, invariability, indestructibility, catazonasulculate, pseudo-etymology, paraetymology, triskaidekaphobia, epidemiology and 197 more...
-
Naked Lunch List
necrophilia, coprophilia, defecate, vituperate, latah, lobotomy, succulent, immaculate concep..., cascade, rube, vigilante, eunuch and 27 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for conspicuous consumption.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.