well-to-do
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of well-to-do
First recorded in 1815–25
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.
The calming locales both complement and contradict the plot’s revelations, which are hardly bombshells but do speak to how well-to-do families labor to shove inconvenient skeletons into the closet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
The exclusive complex, in classic picture-postcard Switzerland scenery, has been welcoming leaders and the well-to-do and for more than 150 years.
From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026
David Lindsay-Abaire’s “The Balusters” is a piquant comedy satirizing the hollowness and hypocrisy of well-to-do do-gooders on a neighborhood homeowners association board.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
In the early days, such caps would affect only a small number of well-to-do retirees.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 16, 2026
In the first room she wrote the flaming Christian tracts for which she was known all over Holland, and in the second received the well-to-do ladies who supported this work.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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.
