tony

• toney

• IPA^(key): /ˈtəʊni/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

  Rhymes: -əʊni

From tone +‎ -y.

tony (comparative tonier, superlative toniest)

1. (informal, Canada, US) Stylish, high-toned, upscale.

   Synonym: swank

   • 1890 March 29, Vi Van Duzen, “The Strike of the Q. Q.’s”, in Lucy Stone, H[enry] B[rowne] Blackwell, Alice Stone Blackwell, editors, The Woman’s Journal, volume XXI, number 13, Boston, Mass., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 103, column 1:

     “He’d scorn it. You heard what he said to-night,” answered Ben. “Never mind that. He’s got tony notions, but he isn’t a pamby, for all his talk. […]”

   • 2013 August 16, Robin Finn, “A Former Madoff Penthouse Goes Back on the Market”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     He bought it for a song in 1984 compared with what his fellow financiers were spending on tonier Park and Fifth Avenues.

   • 2015 October 1, Hank Stuever, “In the hunt for a new favorite show, 'when' might be as crucial as 'what'”, in Washington Post:

     Meanwhile, on another plane entirely, “Another Period” (Comedy Central, recently renewed for Season 2) is a send-up of crunchy-gravel dramas, set in tony Rhode Island in 1902.

   • 2017, David Friend, The Naughty Nineties:

     My host gained national notoriety after her high-profile arrest in 1993 on charges connected with running L.A.'s toniest prostitution ring.

   • 2022 February 10, Mike Hale, “‘Inventing Anna’ Review: The SoHo Scammer, Explained at Length”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     The meaty and more familiar parts of Anna’s story — passing as a German heiress, ripping off tony hotels, brazenly exploiting narcissistic machers and star-struck working women — are told in flashback as Vivian reports her article.

From the name Tony.

tony (plural tonies)

1. (archaic) A simpleton.
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:

     it would have serv'd for a Caution to People how they trifle and play the Tonies betwixt Jeft and Earnest

   • 1677 (first performance), John Dryden, All for Love: Or, The World Well Lost. A Tragedy, […], [London]: […] Tho[mas] Newcomb, for Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC, (please specify the page number):

     A pattern and companion fit / For all the keeping tonies of the pit.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɔ.nɘ/
• Rhymes: -ɔnɘ
• Syllabification: to‧ny

tony

1. genitive singular of tona
2. nominative plural of tona
3. accusative plural of tona
4. vocative plural of tona
5. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of ton