How to Use conspicuous consumption in a Sentence

conspicuous consumption

noun
  • Likewise, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus and the parable of the rich fool, the wealthy are condemned because of their conspicuous consumption and neglect of the poor.
    David B. Gowler, Fortune, 1 May 2018
  • With the rise of business wealth in China came also conspicuous consumption and a new venue for gambling.
    Raf Casert, USA TODAY, 16 Nov. 2020
  • By the time Joe built homes for his sons Murray and Charlie, Livingston had become a town of conspicuous consumption.
    Andrea Bernstein, The New Yorker, 13 Dec. 2016
  • That leaves sheer conspicuous consumption as the main thrust of this car, and that's just too anachronistic a concept, even for a luxury cruiser, in 1986.
    Larry Griffin, Car and Driver, 24 Apr. 2023
  • And these are not people running in the social circles of the Kardashian clan, who are known for their conspicuous consumption.
    Michelle Singletary, Washington Post, 11 Dec. 2019
  • When the gavel at Christie’s came down, conspicuous consumption had taken a great leap forward.
    James Atlas, Town & Country, 8 Feb. 2018
  • Browne has turned it into a badge of conspicuous consumption.
    Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 18 Sep. 2023
  • If conspicuous consumption isn’t your thing, there’s something for you too.
    Fortune, 20 Oct. 2017
  • Wright and Lobo-Navia are sending a powerful message to those of us who often fall hard for conspicuous consumption.
    Brooke Bobb, Vogue, 19 Nov. 2018
  • This is the Hamptons, after all, where conspicuous consumption is an Olympics-caliber sport.
    New York Times, 31 Aug. 2019
  • From the top to the bottom of the income spectrum, people use conspicuous consumption and other means of enhancing their image to project status.
    The Economist, 14 June 2018
  • But consumers in the United States are far from the only ones navigating small space and conspicuous consumption.
    Patrick Sisson, Curbed, 27 Mar. 2018
  • That attitude is far removed from the conspicuous consumption and raunchy machismo of many reggaeton and Latin hits.
    New York Times, 3 Mar. 2021
  • Nearly a decade on, the ranks of the donju have swelled, revealing a taste for conspicuous consumption that has fueled the growth of coffee shops, sushi restaurants and spas in the North Korean capital.
    Jonathan Cheng, WSJ, 26 Aug. 2018
  • Ocasio-Cortez’s dress offered no overt criticism of conspicuous consumption or of the economics of the fashion industry, whose moguls belong to the .01 per cent.
    Judith Thurman, The New Yorker, 17 Sep. 2021
  • Instead, Abramovich became a master of conspicuous consumption, raising the bar for the other oligarchs.
    Simon Usborne, Town & Country, 15 June 2022
  • Nunes notes such conspicuous consumption went up after the Great Recession, too.
    Washington Post, 17 Aug. 2021
  • The status envy induced by conspicuous consumption may play a role.
    The Economist, 6 June 2019
  • The conspicuous consumption of resources and the inadvertent beaming of info-waste into space will end.
    Charley Lineweaver, Discover Magazine, 28 July 2015
  • The fruit-forwardness—conspicuous consumption made teasingly literal—is absurd, but also darkly apt: This is decor that, much like the wealthy guests it is meant to delight, does not know when to stop.
    Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 16 Aug. 2021
  • As a teenage Reaganite outfitted in a suit and armed with a briefcase, Fox’s Keaton embodied the newfound spirit of conspicuous consumption.
    Brent Lang, Variety, 11 May 2023
  • Since the world of Hyowon Group and its ruling family is all about appearances, that includes some conspicuous consumption.
    Joan MacDonald, Forbes, 11 May 2021
  • Like a seven-figure Bored Ape, these body-on-frame behemoths embody a certain brand of conspicuous consumption.
    Ezra Dyer, Car and Driver, 15 June 2022
  • Still, conspicuous consumption appears to be a growing factor in the economics of smartphones.
    Tripp Mickle, WSJ, 17 Sep. 2017
  • In the 1980s, the Ferrari Testarossa was a spectacular supercar symbol of the era’s excess and conspicuous consumption.
    Mike Duff, Car and Driver, 12 May 2021
  • Historically, the non–fabulously wealthy who craved the latest in conspicuous consumption had no recourse but to eat their hearts out.
    Cintra Wilson, The New York Review of Books, 11 Feb. 2020
  • During a time of rampant conspicuous consumption, the Prius offered the perfect antidote to gas-guzzling SUVs.
    Car and Driver, 4 July 2020
  • The resulting retail model looks a lot less like previous notions of conspicuous consumption and a lot more like visual culture.
    Courtney Coffman, The Atlantic, 19 June 2018
  • Nothing pairs better with mass conspicuous consumption quite like pop culture nostalgia bait.
    Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 1 Nov. 2023
  • On one hand, some people condemned its commodification of luxury and emphasis on conspicuous consumption, while others called out its failure to meaningfully protest luxury’s exclusionary practices.
    Shelcy Joseph, Essence, 18 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'conspicuous consumption.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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