Word.ws English Dictionary

dressed to the nines

dressed to the nines adjective: very fancily or formally dressed; wearing very showy or splendid clothing.

Adjective

dressed to the nines (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic) Very fancily or formally dressed; wearing very showy or splendid clothing.
    • He arrived at the gala, dressed to the nines in his top hat and tails.
    • During the early part of the day he took a stroll in the vicinity of "Fell's Point," dressed to the nines, with his cravat, and pin, and shirt collar neatly folded over.1846, Alexander Kerr Bonn, An Original, Laughable and Comical Tale of Hughie Morrison, the Scottish Emigrant, page 20

Origin of dressed to the nines

From dressed + to the nines; first recorded in the 1800s.

Questions about dressed to the nines

What does dressed to the nines mean?
Dressed to the nines means very fancily or formally dressed; wearing very showy or splendid clothing.
What part of speech is dressed to the nines?
Dressed to the nines is an adjective.

Words near dressed to the nines in the dictionary

  1. dressed off
  2. dressed out
  3. dressed the house
  4. dressed the part
  5. dressed to kill
  6. dressed to the nines
  7. dressed up
  8. dressed up like a Christmas tree
  9. dressed up like a dog's dinner
  10. dressed up to the nines
  11. Dressel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dressed to the nines (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-dressed to the nines.ogg.

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