Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. smart, chic, fashionable; wealthy, affluent.

1924		Collier’s 4 Oct. 41/1: Gentleman George dropped his Ritzy manner like it was a hot poker. He begin tearin’ his hair and cursin’ me .
1926		Lucille Hegamin ‘Here Comes Malinda’ 🎵 And how she dogs ’em round, / She’s sure a ritzy hound, / When she’s out for air, / Makes ’em stop and stare.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 2: I’ve kipped in feathers just as ritz as this gingerbread bridal cell.
1930		E. Glyn Flirt & Flapper 17: Flapper: It’s swell to have a church wedding — the Episcopalians are the most Ritzy.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 106: It was a ritsy neighbourhood.
1932		J. Dixon Free To Love 183: ‘Ritzy, eh?’ he asked, looking about the remodeled room.
1942		P. Wylie Generation of Vipers 235: We learned [...] that our louts and rustics, businessmen and politicians, were not as slick or ritzy as the London, Berlin, and Paris bandits.
c.1950		K. Howard Small Time Crooks 93: I buy meself a cheap cigar sometimes, an’ put a ritz band on it for kid.
1956		F.O. Beck Hobohemia 68: Interspersed are mansions, pretentious and of long standing, a ritzy residential section.
1969		C. Himes Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 55: The ritzy residents across the street never looked their way.
1972		(con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 105: That damned Dinkle [...] having a ritzy time in El Paso while we suffer in the field.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 28: A ritzy but misnomered neighborhood where his sister Kate lived.
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 273: For a supposedly ritzy hotel [...] the actual clientele are a pretty seedy-looking bunch.
1998		P. Cornwell Point of Origin (1999) 17: Did you know you have a peeper in this ritzy white-bread place?
2000		Observer Mag. 25 Jan. 13: Brought up in a ritzy hotel by a Washington political family.
2010		J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 20: Ritzy houses were arrayed in three directions.
2015		N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] We worked out a cunning plan — kerbside collection in the ritzy neighborhoods.

2. pretentious, posturing, esp. in phr. don’t get ritzy with me.

1920		Wodehouse Jill the Reckless (1922) 240: The Duchess, abandoning that aristocratic manner criticized by some of her colleagues as ‘up-stage’ and by others as ‘Ritz-y’ [etc.].
1922		Morn. Tulsa Dly World (OK) 7 May 29/7: Ritz - Stuck up.
1929		W. Winchell On Broadway 23 Oct. [synd. col.] One guy [...] is going around saying I don’t have to be so ritzy because he ‘knew me when’.
1959		E. De Roo Young Wolves 89: He heard how she gave her voice that ritzy lilt. That was for the visitor’s benefit.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 45: They looked even ritzier this way, like angels or Egyptians reflected in an undisturbed pool.