Where Does Dressed to the Nines Mean?
If You Say That Someone Is Dressed up to the Nines or Dressed to the Nines, You Mean That They Are Wearing Very Smart or Elegant Clothes. [Informal] See Full...
If you say that someone is dressed up to the nines or dressed to the nines, you mean that they are wearing very smart or elegant clothes. [informal] See full dictionary entry for nine.
Where did phrase dressed to the nines come from?
The phrase is said to be Scots in origin. The earliest written example of the phrase is from the 1719 Epistle to Ramsay by the Scottish poet William Hamilton: The bonny Lines therein thou sent me, How to the nines they did content me.
What does dressed to the nines mean and where did it come from?
There's plenty of folk etymologies for the phrase that link clothing with the number nine. One says that the phrase comes from the nine yards of material a tailor needed to make a really nice suit. A few tailors I talked to, though, say four to five yards of fabric should be sufficient for a three piece suit.
Alexander Ross has covered the video game industry for a decade, writing deep dives on game design, esports tournaments, VR developments, and gaming culture.
