social climber
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mr. Restall’s Columbus was a man on the make, a social climber who used his marriage in 1479 to Felipa Moniz, the daughter of a minor aristocrat, to further his standing.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026
He is a vain social climber, easily fooled by his clever, beautiful young wife.
From Slate • May 4, 2023
I knew Kushner as an Olympic-level social climber, and he lards his memoir with famous names, however distant the acquaintance: Bono, Billy Joel, Kim Kardashian.
From Washington Post • Aug. 26, 2022
‘Barry Lyndon’ Ryan O’Neal stars as the titular 18th-century Irish rogue and social climber in Stanley Kubrick’s visually ravishing 1975 adaptation of Thackeray’s 19th-century novel.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 23, 2022
As Joanne Kaufman reported in the Wall Street journal, Ms. Pittman was known in certain elevated circles more as a social climber than mountain climber.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
