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sumptuary

   Also found in: Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
sump·tu·ar·y  (smpch-r)
adj.
1. Regulating or limiting personal expenditures.
2.
a. Regulating commercial or real-estate activities: sumptuary laws discouraging construction of large houses on small plots of land.
b. Regulating personal behavior on moral or religious grounds: sumptuary laws forbidding gambling.
[Latin smpturius, from smptus, expense, from past participle of smere, to take, buy; see em- in Indo-European roots.]
sumptuary
Adjective
controlling expenditure or extravagant use of resources [Latin sumptuarius concerning expense]
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Adj.1.sumptuary - regulating or controlling expenditure or personal behavior; "sumptuary laws discouraging construction of large houses on small plots"; "sumptuary laws forbidding gambling"
restrictive - serving to restrict; "teenagers eager to escape restrictive home environments"


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore, and which was of a splendour in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony.
The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne, Nathaniel View in context
To which purpose serveth the opening, and well-balancing of trade; the cherishing of manufactures; the banishing of idleness; the repressing of waste, and excess, by sumptuary laws; the improvement and husbanding of the soil; the regulating of prices of things vendible; the moderating of taxes and tributes; and the like.
The Essays by Bacon, Sir Francis View in context
These clothes and trinkets they were wearing were as fine and dainty as the shrewdest stretch of the sumptuary laws allowed to people of their degree; and in these pretty clothes, she crying on his shoulder, and he trying to comfort her with hopeful words set to the music of despair, they went from the judgment seat out into the world homeless, bedless, breadless; why, the very beggars by the road- sides were not so poor as they.
A Connecticut Yankee by Twain, Mark View in context
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