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petty bourgeois

American  

Etymology

Origin of petty bourgeois

First recorded in 1885–90

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.

“What they had hoped for themselves and their petty bourgeois dreams — they’re not that different from ours at all,” he says.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 11, 2024

But its central insight was sound: that the future lay with coalitions of different estates, petty bourgeois and peasantry and proletariat mixed up, not with a Commune committed to one.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 15, 2014

I said, this other stuff, this metaphysical stuff, was petty bourgeois self-indulgence.

From Salon • Apr. 6, 2014

Most disfiguring, however, was the chippy, petty bourgeois resentment.

From The Guardian • May 28, 2012

“He says that you are a petty bourgeois degenerate,” I was told.

From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright

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