trust-fund baby

A form of trust fund baby — A person who lives off of family wealth, which is often stored in a trust fund and pays the children or beneficiaries on a monthly basis.

Meanings

nountrust-fund baby (plural trust-fund babies)

plural trust-fund babies

  1. alternativeAlternative form of trust fund baby.

    The book tells of his [Jay Gatsby’s] obsessive love for Daisy Buchanan, part Midwestern lass, part Southern belle and all entitled and somewhat embittered debutante bride of Tom Buchanan, a gruff trust-fund baby who takes the best in life as simply his due.

    2025 April 15, John Krull, “Remembering ‘Great Gatsby’ as masterpiece turns 100”, in The Stuart News, volume 89, number 284, Stuart, Fla.: Treasure Coast Newspapers, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6A, column 3
    2 more examples

    I had my own reasons for disliking Sandra, who possessed neither manners nor scruples, and I had long been curious to see the McKenzie youngster, shunted hither and yon, a trust-fund baby and all that goes with it. She was a solitary figure now in the house of her bachelor uncle, looked after by a crabbed housekeeper, and about as welcome as a stray kitten with the mange.

    1941 May 17, Norma Jean Bunting, “Short Story: Beauty Salon”, in The Daily Times, volume LV, number 130, Davenport, Ia., →OCLC, page 10, column 3

    This is not my dream job. Don’t get me wrong; I love my work, but this is not the career I imagined as I daydreamed my way through grade school. I dreamed of being a trust-fund baby. My parents were amused by my fantasy, and they kept assuring me that they were present at my birth, and that there was no chance that my “real” parents—the Rockefellers—would swoop in and claim me as one of their own.

    2011 May 20, Barry Koltnow, “Paris Hilton could be my mom (if she wanted)”, in The Modesto Bee, Modesto, Calif., →OCLC, “Scene” section, page 4, column 1
Cite this entry
APA

trust-fund baby. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trust-fund%20baby

MLA

“trust-fund baby.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trust-fund%20baby. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “trust-fund baby,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trust-fund%20baby.

Source: trust-fund baby on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.