conspicuous consumption

The acquisition or display of expensive items to attract attention to one's wealth or to suggest that one is wealthy.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

conspicuous consumption

spending in a lavish or ostentatious way, esp to impress others with one's wealth

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

conspic′uous consump′tion

public enjoyment of costly possessions, flaunting one's ability to pay for such things.

[used by T. Veblen in The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

conspicuous consumption - buying expensive services and products in order to flaunt your wealth

economic consumption, use of goods and services, usance, consumption, use - (economics) the utilization of economic goods to satisfy needs or in manufacturing; "the consumption of energy has increased steadily"

Translations

conspicuous consumption

n → Prestigekäufe pl

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

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And I wonder how many conservative voters believe our hopes for the future are defined by so-called past greatness that included violating agreements with Native Americans, the slavery of African Americans, the monopolies and abysmal working conditions of the Industrial Revolution, the losses of American lives in two world wars, the nuclear threat presented by the Cold War, a failed war in Vietnam, the Nixon administration and the conspicuous consumption of the 1980s.

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