Vanity Fair

American  

noun

1. (in Bunyan'sPilgrim's Progress ) a fair that goes on perpetually in the town of Vanity and symbolizes worldly ostentation and frivolity.

2. (often lowercase) any place or group, as the world or fashionable society, characterized by or displaying a preoccupation with idle pleasures or ostentation.

3. (italics) a novel (1847–48) by Thackeray.

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Vanity Fair British  

noun

1. literary (often not capitals) the social life of a community, esp of a great city, or the world in general, considered as symbolizing worldly frivolity

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Vanity Fair Cultural  

1. (1847–1848) A novel by the English author William Makepeace Thackeray. The leading character is Becky Sharp, an unscrupulous woman who gains wealth and influence by her cleverness.

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Etymology

Origin of Vanity Fair

from Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress

Example Sentences

“He knows he can’t run again,” Susie Wiles, the president’s White House chief of staff, told Vanity Fair in a recent profile of her.

From Los Angeles Times

Since the onstage slugfest, Kelly has continued to lash out in a follow-up interview with Vanity Fair and a series of increasingly frantic posts on X. She attacked Shapiro and Bari Weiss — the newly installed editor-in-chief of CBS News who called Shapiro’s speech a “barnburner” and published it on her Free Press website — cowards.

From Salon

On the other hand, things can always get worse, as I was reminded last week by a line in Chris Whipple’s profile of Susie Wiles in Vanity Fair.

From The Wall Street Journal

According to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in a recently published Vanity Fair article, she tried to convince the president to end his score settling.

From Salon

A 2020 feature in Vanity Fair about the Millers’ engagement resurfaced an incident involving Katie and a widely respected English teacher, Simone Waite—one of the school’s few Black faculty members.

From Slate