The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sumptuary \Sump"tu*a*ry\, a. [L. sumptuarius, fr. sumptus
expense, cost, fr. sumere, sumptum, to take, use, spend; sub
under + emere to take, buy: cf. F. somptuaire. See Redeem.]
Relating to expense; regulating expense or expenditure.
--Bacon.
Sumptuary laws or Sumptuary regulations, laws intended to restrain or limit the expenditure of citizens in apparel, food, furniture, etc.; laws which regulate the prices of commodities and the wages of labor; laws which forbid or restrict the use of certain articles, as of luxurious apparel.
Usage examples of "sumptuary regulations".
They even had the advantage-if you were prepared to go looking for a bright side to the seventeenth century's equivalent of Jim Crow laws-of sumptuary regulations which forbade them the extravagant finery of the Venetian upper crust.