Four Hundred
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of Four Hundred
An Americanism dating back to 1885–90; allegedly after the capacity of the ballroom in the mansion of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, a leader of New York society in the late 19th century
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Under Solon’s new laws, each of Athens’s four traditional tribes chose one hundred of its members by lot, including commoners, to sit in the new Council of Four Hundred and run the government.
From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023
Rich people — and there were supposedly only Four Hundred of them — gathered in Mrs. Astor’s ballroom.
From Washington Post • May 20, 2019
Or at the very least as rigorous an exclusion from glory as that which formerly marked the difference between Mrs. Astor’s Four Hundred and the rest of the human race.
From The New Yorker • Dec. 4, 2014
The enormous gold watch fob Samuel Ward McAllister, the self-appointed gatekeeper of the Four Hundred, sports in his 1877 portrait by Adolphe Yvon is set off by his sober black bespoke suit.
From Slate • Jul. 10, 2014
I went to the Girls’ Friendly last night, and there was that Miss Van Antwerp that runs our class, and she was so interested, for all she’s one of the Four Hundred.
From Vistas of New York by Matthews, Brander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
