smart set

noun

1. sophisticated, fashionable people as a group.

   a shop catering to the smart set.

smart set

noun

1. (functioning as singular or plural) fashionable sophisticated people considered as a group

Word History and Origins

Origin of smart set¹

First recorded in 1885–90

Idioms and Phrases

A fashionable social group, as in This restaurant has been discovered by the smart set. This idiom may be obsolescent. [Late 1800s]

Example Sentences

Read: Honor Levy’s “My First Book” captures the quiet desperation of today’s smart set.

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Days earlier, Condé Nast folded Pitchfork, once a kingmaker among music’s smart set, into GQ magazine and laid off employees, including the editor in chief.

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As time went on, though, “Abie’s Irish Rose” lived long enough to generate what Schildcrout called “a begrudging respect” for the play among the smart set.

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David Zinn contributes a smart set design, with a central, rounded brick apartment building whose walls part to reveal street scenes, hotel suites and showgirl-filled stages.

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But his niche in the niche-songwriting world of the cabaret smart set, when such a breed still existed, was lofty.

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Related Words

• aristocracy 
• blue blood 
• jet set 
• upper class