Gay Nineties

American  

plural noun

1. the 1890s in the United States, a period regarded nostalgically as a decade of prosperous comfort and associated with gaslights, early bicycles and cars, and the Gibson girl.

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Example Sentences

The Kaufman and James recordings sound more like something out of the buttoned-up Gay Nineties than the libertine Roaring ’20s or the Big Band Era.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 14, 2026

In particular, I keep thinking about the fate of Bill’s Gay Nineties.

From Time • Jan. 10, 2013

Bill’s Gay Nineties, at 57 East 54th Street, which opened during Prohibition and never shut since, has started a final countdown and will be closing on March 24.

From New York Times • Mar. 2, 2012

It was called “The Gay Nineties of Maplewood.”

From Washington Post

It was a picture of a Gay Nineties couple on a bicycle built for two.

From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut