LUXURY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does luxury mean? 

• LUXURY (noun)
  The noun LUXURY has 3 senses:

1. something that is an indulgence rather than a necessity

2. the quality possessed by something that is excessively expensive

3. wealth as evidenced by sumptuous living

  Familiarity information: LUXURY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LUXURY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Something that is an indulgence rather than a necessity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("luxury" is a kind of...):

indulgence; self-indulgence (an inability to resist the gratification of whims and desires)

Derivation:

luxuriate (become extravagant; indulge (oneself) luxuriously)

luxurious (ostentatiously rich and superior in quality)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality possessed by something that is excessively expensive

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

lavishness; luxury; sumptuosity; sumptuousness

Hypernyms ("luxury" is a kind of...):

expensiveness (the quality of being high-priced)

Derivation:

luxuriate (become extravagant; indulge (oneself) luxuriously)

luxurious (ostentatiously rich and superior in quality)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Wealth as evidenced by sumptuous living

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

luxuriousness; luxury; opulence; sumptuousness

Hypernyms ("luxury" is a kind of...):

wealth; wealthiness (the state of being rich and affluent; having a plentiful supply of material goods and money)

Derivation:

luxuriate (enjoy to excess)

luxuriate (become extravagant; indulge (oneself) luxuriously)

luxurious (ostentatiously rich and superior in quality)

 Context examples 

As she said, she was 'fond of luxury', and her chief trouble was poverty.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Everywhere there were mingled the luxury of the wealthy man of taste and the careless untidiness of the bachelor.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then on January 23, Venus and Jupiter will be cooking up love and luxury.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The prince's reception-room, although of no great size, was fitted up with all the state and luxury which the fame and power of its owner demanded.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“This is the luxury of a large party,” said she:—“one can get near every body, and say every thing.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I could not help feeling, though she mingled her tears with mine, that she had a dreadful luxury in our afflictions.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I would not now have exchanged Lowood with all its privations for Gateshead and its daily luxuries.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Vegetables and bread, when they indulged in such luxuries, and even fresh water, was to be procured from the mainland, which was about five miles distant.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Walrus ivory was once a luxury in high demand and was widely traded in the Viking Age and across Medieval Europe.

(Extinction of Icelandic walrus coincides with Norse settlement, National Science Foundation)

"I'm wishin' there was a priest," he said wistfully; then added swiftly, "But Michael Dennin's too old a campaigner to miss the luxuries when he hits the trail."

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)