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

See Examples For:

smart set

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

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

From New York Times ● May 2, 2024

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

And wealthy proprietors, who cater to this class and the intermediate class which ape the "smart set," will cling to the custom because of their pecuniary interest therein.

From The Itching Palm A Study of the Habit of Tipping in America by Scott, William R

Related Words

• aristocracy
• blue blood
• jet set
• upper class