tenue de ville

Noun

tenue de ville (uncountable)

1. (rare) Clothing suitable for an office or business setting, such as a business suit or skirt suit.
   • No one would imagine that a man in an ice cream suit and a blue shirt, a tenue de ville as specified by his hostess, his arms full of liquor bottles, would have a bad conscience because he had failed to notice thunderheads on the horizon — but such was life in Llewellyn Group.1999, Ward Just, A Dangerous Friend, Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 171
   • When it's needed, the priest, in tenue de ville, takes it from his pocket, unfolds it, kisses it, says a prayer, and then places it about his neck.2002, Paul Fussell, Uniforms: Why We Are What We Wear, Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 70