smart set
Fashionable social circle
The smart set is fashionable, sophisticated society—the stylish and wealthy people who set social trends.
The phrase peaked in early 20th-century usage, when magazines and gossip columns tracked the smart set at parties, resorts, and theaters.
Now somewhat dated, it survives with a tinge of irony or nostalgia.
- literatiEducated, cultured class
- high societyThe social elite
- upper classWealthiest societal stratum
- four hundredCardinal after 399
- social registerDirectory of elite families
coterie · elite · in crowd · aristocracy · socialite · cognoscenti · blueblood · who's who · tastemaker · intelligentsia · upper crust · beau monde · country club · salon · clique · beautiful people · posh · chic
smart setthe masses
Common populace collectively
common people · hoi polloi · rabble · riffraff · plebeians
smart setphilistines
Uncultured, materialistic people
lowbrows · Middle America · rubes · provincials · bumpkins
smart, set, setting, settled, settlement, sets, unsettled, smarts, reset