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tony

tony

6 9.8
A fashionable rich person who goes to the best parties
  • noun
  • /ˈtoʊni/
translation icon : pijo
  • She explained that most of the guests at the event were tony socialites from the upper echelons of society.
  • tony restaurants
  • tony suburb
  • tony resort

Examples

  • Despite the name, it's a tony little bistro catering to Gotham's elite.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • The two had apparently quarreled after a day of drinking at her beach house in the tony resort town of Buzios, near Rio de Janeiro.

    Academic text (1992)
  • I was recently at a tony wedding party; it was really fun!

    Blog text (23)
  • A tony and expensive store that was always mobbed.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • The day has been a walk through the tony shopping district in Annapolis where he has bought her a red cotton sweater with tortoiseshell buttons.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • There would be tony restaurants, airplane trips, hotels with doormen, and women and men to clean the house and trim the lawn.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • It was nearing noon, and the tony Georgetown street was starting to bustle with activity.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Lovejoy's 2, on the other hand, looked as if it could have been transplanted from some tony address on West Fifty-seventh Street in New York City and set down at the far end of the Mulberry Mall.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • We were an affluent family with a home in Reston, a tony suburb in northern Virginia, but even for an affluent couple, gene enhancement is not a cheap proposition, and I was to have no brothers or sisters.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • Independent schools are more often than not parodied in film as unapproachable schools for the rich (Dead Poets Society, Scent of a Woman, The Emperor's Club) and portrayed in mainstream news as inaccessible institutions ("the tony and elite school on the hill").

    Academic text (2006)

Synonyms

aristo
vstony
  • Archaic
1 9.6

A person from the upper class who has high social rank

includes being fashionable and wealthy not only birth or class status
nobby
vstony
  • UK
9.9

A person who dresses stylishly to show wealth or high social class

emphasizes both wealth and high society membership rather than just stylish dress

Antonyms

1.0

Having little money or possessions

31 4.2

A person without a noble title who is an ordinary member of society

How Fashionable

tony
6 9.8
socialite
29 6.7

Surface Forms

tony singular
tonies plural

Etymology

Tony as a noun comes from the idea of 'the ton', the name for the rich, fashionable group from 'le bon ton' in French. So a tony is a person who belongs to high society or who looks very fashionable.