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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.
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Examples of ritzy in a Sentence
Gqlshare, Orange County Register, 15 Jan. 2025
The event was originally slated to take place from Jan. 21 to 24 in the ritzy Bel Air neighborhood, which was affected by forced evacuations orders on Sunday due to the advances of the Palisades fire.
—Lily Templeton, WWD, 14 Jan. 2025
Typical episodes detailed McFadden’s standout cases: The angry teenager who killed Harding High School football star Travis Davis, businessman John Hayes’ killing of his wife in their ritzy Montibello home and more over two seasons on Investigation Discovery, a true crime network.
—Ryan Oehrli, Charlotte Observer, 9 Jan. 2025
The inferno has consumed homes in the ritzy area, including those belonging to celebrities.
—Stephanie Giang-Paunon, Fox News, 8 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Ritzy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ritzy. Accessed 21 Jan. 2025.
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