noun
- (in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress) a fair that goes on perpetually in the town of Vanity and symbolizes worldly ostentation and frivolity.
- (often lowercase) any place or group, as the world or fashionable society, characterized by or displaying a preoccupation with idle pleasures or ostentation.
- (italics) a novel (1847–48) by Thackeray.
noun
- (often not capitals) literary the social life of a community, esp of a great city, or the world in general, considered as symbolizing worldly frivolity
(1847–1848) A novel by the English author William Makepeace Thackeray. The leading character is Becky Sharp, an unscrupulous woman who gains wealth and influence by her cleverness.