Word.ws English Dictionary

put on the ritz

put on the ritz verb: to make a show of luxury and extravagance.

Verb (1)

put on the ritz (third-person singular simple present puts on the ritz, present participle putting on the ritz, simple past and past participle put on the ritz)

  1. (idiomatic) to make a show of luxury and extravagance
    • The whole gang has put on the Ritz and are strutting about like a collection of pouter pigeons.1921 May 26, Chicago Daily Tribune
    • If you're blue and you don't know
      Where to go to
      Why don't you go
      where Harlem sits
      Puttin' on the Ritz.
      Spangled gowns
      Upon a bevy
      Of high browns
      From down the Levee, all misfits
      Puttin' on the Ritz.1929, Irving Berlin, “Puttin' on the Ritz”

Verb (2) capitalized: put on the Ritz

put on the Ritz (third-person singular simple present puts on the Ritz, present participle putting on the Ritz, simple past and past participle put on the Ritz)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of put on the ritz.

Forms of put on the ritz

third-person singular presentputs on the ritz
present participleputting on the ritz
past participleput on the ritz
pastput on the ritz
alternative formput on the Ritz
third-person singular presentputs on the Ritz
present participleputting on the Ritz
past participleput on the Ritz
pastput on the Ritz

Origin of put on the ritz

Evokes the image of putting on extravagent clothing worthy of the luxurious Ritz Hotel in London, opened in 1906. Phrase in print by 1921.

Questions about put on the ritz

What does put on the ritz mean?
Put on the ritz means to make a show of luxury and extravagance.
What part of speech is put on the ritz?
Put on the ritz is a verb.
What is the past tense of put on the ritz?
The past tense of put on the ritz is put on the ritz.

Words near put on the ritz in the dictionary

  1. put on the kibosh
  2. put on the long finger
  3. put on the map
  4. put on the pounds
  5. put on the red light
  6. put on the ritz
  7. put on the spot
  8. put on weight
  9. put one across
  10. put one foot in front of the other
  11. put one over

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: put on the ritz (page history and authors); put on the Ritz (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-put on the ritz.ogg.

Cite this entry: “put on the ritz.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/put_on_the_ritz. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.