nouveau pauvre
Americannoun
-
nouveaux pauvres
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
She interviewed 20- and 30-somethings about their financial woes, classifying them as the nouveau pauvre, or, as a well-known economist put it, “well-dressed paupers.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
My lapse in standing was the misfortune of being from the nouveau pauvre side of what passed for an elegant family there in the Pittsburgh of the South.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
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.
