Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who has recently become rich, especially one who flaunts newly acquired wealth.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • One who has recently acquired wealth; one newly enriched; hence, a wealthy upstart; a parvenu.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • A person newly rich. Contrasted with old money.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun pejorative New money; wealthy persons whose fortunes are newly acquired, and who are therefore perceived to lack the refinement of those who were raised wealthy.
  • adjective Newly rich; like a nouveau riche.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective characteristic of someone who has risen economically or socially but lacks the social skills appropriate for this new position
  • noun a person who has suddenly risen to a higher economic status but has not gained social acceptance of others in that class

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French : nouveau, new + riche, rich.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowing from French nouveau riche (literally "new rich").

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Examples

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Comments

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  • "the kind of people who buy their silver"

    October 18, 2007

  • But some people's mothers chose ugly silver!

    Hi mom.

    October 19, 2007

  • Haha!

    *looks around for mom*

    October 19, 2007