Jay Gatsby

plural Jay Gatsbys

1. An ambitious, upper-class and wealthy man.

   Sixties-style idealism has long since given way to pragmatism. These aspirants are Jay Gatsbys in training, who regard an elite pedigree as their ticket to the new aristocracy.

   2009, David L. Kirp, Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education, Harvard University Press, page 12

   2 more examples

   We had spent the few hours since his death investigating his wealth. He was a born accumulator, like the Jay Gatsby of northern Spain. He owned land in Álava, Viscaya, Cantabria, Guipúzcoa, and Burgos. He had vineyards in the Rioja Alavesa and Navarre. Although he was sixty-seven at the time of his death, Antón Lasaga showed no intention of giving up control of his business.

   2021, Eva García Sáenz, translated by Nick Caistor, The Lords of Time, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, page 39

   Before I drifted off, I considered that with all my money, I surely could have bought a big house in town and filled it with party people nightly. I could have been the Jay Gatsby of Fondy.

   2012, Richard Curtis Hauschild, The Book of Roland, Dog Ear Publishing, page 133