Literary notes about classy (AI summary)
In literature, "classy" emerges as a multifaceted term that can denote refined elegance and upper social status while also being employed with irony or self-deprecation. Authors use it to paint characters and settings with both laudatory flair and a note of sardonic humor—sometimes describing an impeccably dressed figure or sophisticated venue ([1], [2], [3]), while in other contexts it hints at pretension or even absurdity, as when a situation is labeled as overly theatrical or insincere ([4], [5], [6]). The term’s versatility allows it to underscore a character's cultivated manners or subtly critique the forced airs of social decorum, enriching narrative textures through a playful yet pointed commentary on what it means to be "classy" ([7], [8], [9]).
- Here was a regular person, all dolled up in a classy evening gown, with a fur-trimmed opera cape slippin' off her shoulders.
— from Torchy and Vee by Sewell Ford - You won't have to bother with any but classy gents.
— from Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise by David Graham Phillips - "It was the first really classy magazine on love and sex in American history," he says.
— from 100 New Yorkers of the 1970s by Max Millard - But it's my belief he's turning a classy little engagement into a bloody brawl!
— from The Eye of Zeitoon by Talbot Mundy - " "Why, I was just thinkin' how classy it was," says I. "Bah!" says Aunty.
— from On With Torchy by Sewell Ford - "It's so second-classy," she continued; "at least the women are, mostly.
— from Together by Robert Herrick - I suppose I shall have to admit that I am a very classy girl, because if I weren’t, I couldn’t be associated with such a classy bunch—see?
— from Campfire Girls at Twin Lakes; Or, The Quest of a Summer Vacation by Stella M. Francis - You know she ain’t—half a million, classy family.
— from The Boys of the Wireless; Or, A Stirring Rescue from the Deep by Frank V. Webster - “That’s a real classy letter, ain’t it?”
— from The Uncensored Letters of a Canteen Girl by Katharine Duncan Morse
