upper ten thousand

Coined in the 1800s by American poet and author Nathaniel Parker Willis.

upper ten thousand pl (plural only)

1. (dated, colloquial) The ten thousand people, more or less, who are highest in position or wealth; the upper class; the aristocracy.

• upper ten

• uppertendom

• “upper”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.