smart set

American  

noun

1. sophisticated, fashionable people as a group.

   a shop catering to the smart set.

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smart set British  

noun

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

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smart set Idioms  

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

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Etymology

Origin of smart set

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

She added that the department has "made a smart set of decisions but it is part of an overall package".

From BBC • Oct. 28, 2025

But this pathetic desire to be seen as part of the "smart" set makes it pretty easy to scam the elite right.

From Salon • Aug. 8, 2023

The larger-than-life 70-year-old is an Oxford graduate, was part of London's smart set in the late 1970s and later led cricket-mad Pakistan to victory in the 1992 World Cup.

From Reuters • May 22, 2023

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.

From Washington Post • Apr. 24, 2022

The smart set absent from Newport were to be found at the Pier.

From Edgar Saltus: The Man by Saltus, Marie

Related Words

• aristocracy
• blue blood
• jet set
• upper class