1. (in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress ) a fair that goes on perpetually in the town of Vanity and symbolizes worldly ostentation and frivolity.
2. ( often l.c. ) any place or group, as the world or fashionable society, characterized by or displaying a preoccupation with idle pleasures or ostentation.
3. ( italics ) a novel (1847-48) by Thackeray.