tony
- noun
- /ˈtoʊni/
- 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
A person from the upper class who has high social rank
A person who dresses stylishly to show wealth or high social class
Antonyms
How Fashionable
Surface Forms
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.